Principal Machine Learning Engineer

JR United Kingdom; Leigh; Remote; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading organization in drug discovery seeks a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to lead technical direction in structural biology. This fully remote role offers a competitive salary up to £160,000, equity, and benefits, focusing on advanced ML systems for complex biological challenges.

Benefits

Fully Remote Working Culture

Flexible Hours

B2B Options

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in training and deploying transformer-based models for protein structure prediction.
• Experience with deploying ML systems at scale.

Responsibilities

• Defining data preprocessing and benchmarking approaches for training on protein structures.
• Designing model extensions for predicting protein interactions and binding affinities.
• Mentoring team members and planning complex projects.

Skills

Machine Learning

Problem Solving

Collaboration

Education

PhD in Machine Learning

PhD in Computational Biology

PhD in Structural Biology

Tools

Transformer-based Models

CI/CD Pipelines

Distributed GPU Training

Job description

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Job Views:

4

Posted:

12.05.2025

Expiry Date:

26.06.2025

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Job Description:

Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Structural Biology | Pharma/BioTech expertise | Series A - Drug discovery B2B Platform | Fully Remote, EU | Base Salary Up to £160,000, plus early equity and benefits.

A leading organization in the drug discovery field is seeking a Principal ML Engineer to lead the technical direction of their structural biology models. This role involves hands-on work and offers the opportunity to advance foundational models for complex structural biology challenges.

The successful candidate will collaborate closely with leadership, serving as the technical authority on machine learning modeling, architecture, and experimentation. While not managing people, mentorship and guidance to engineers and researchers are expected.

Ideal candidates will have deep expertise in training and deploying transformer-based models for protein structure prediction and related tasks, with a proven record of strategic problem-solving and delivering impactful ML systems.

Responsibilities include:

• Defining data preprocessing, selection, and benchmarking approaches for training on protein structures, complexes, and multimodal datasets.
• Designing and implementing model extensions for challenges like predicting protein interactions and binding affinities, including data pipelines.
• Mentoring team members and planning complex projects related to structural biology modeling.
• Leading technical strategy for ML applications in structural biology, influencing architecture, infrastructure, and deployment decisions.
• Collaborating with teams to meet scientific discovery needs.
• Contributing to scientific publications or open-source projects.
• Developing scalable, production-ready ML systems, including training, inference, and deployment pipelines.

Within three months, the candidate will oversee a structural biology modeling project and lead multiple initiatives demonstrating significant improvements.

Qualifications:

• PhD or equivalent in machine learning, computational biology, or structural biology.
• Proven experience applying ML to protein structure or drug discovery challenges.
• Extensive experience with transformer-based models.
• Understanding data challenges in structural biology and designing scalable workflows.
• Experience with deploying ML systems at scale, including CI/CD pipelines and distributed GPU training.
• Knowledge of how structural biology models contribute to drug discovery.

Remuneration includes a fully remote working culture, B2B and full-time options, flexible hours within CET, and a salary up to £160,000 plus early equity and benefits. If you are interested, send your CV for consideration.