Principal Scientist (Comp. Bio/ML) - Genomics

Helical; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Helical is seeking a Principal Computational Scientist/Director to guide translation of foundation models into real-world discovery workflows in drug development and translational research.

You will lead as a senior individual contributor, mentor colleagues, and partner with Product and Business Development to turn cutting-edge biology and ML into customer deliverables.

Qualifications

• PhD in Computational Biology/ML with 2+ years industry ML Genomics
• Or MSc with 5+ years ML Genomics in industry
• Strong knowledge of ML methods for biology

Responsibilities

• Provide scientific leadership across model evaluation and applied use cases.
• Mentor junior colleagues and collaborate with cross-functional teams.
• Translate biology + ML insights into deployable workflows for customers.

Skills

ML for Genomics

Biology-ML intersection

Clear communication

Strategic leadership

Education

PhD in Computational Biology / ML / Bioinformatics

MSc + 5+ years ML Genomics industry experience

Tools

PyTorch

Job description

We’re looking for a Principal Computational Scientist/Director to help translate our foundation models into impactful, real-world discovery workflows. In this role, you’ll provide scientific leadership across model evaluation and applied use cases, ensuring our work stays grounded in the most relevant challenges in drug development and translational research.

You’ll join as a senior individual contributor with leadership and strategy experience at a point where the the team scales. You will act as a key scientific partner to our research team, mentor and support junior colleagues, and work closely with Product and Business Development to turn cutting-edge biology + ML into deliverables that matter for customers.

Requirements

• - PhD in Computational Biology, Machine Learning, Bioinformatics, or a related field, with a strong focus on Genomics + ML , and 2+ years of industry (non-academic) experience OR MSc in a relevant field and 5+ years of industry experience applying ML to Genomics problems
• - Strong understanding of ML/AI methods for biological data (e.g., transformers, VAEs, diffusion models, classical ML )
• - Hands‑on experience with modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch (or equivalent)
• - Leadership experience with small teams to work towards defined roadmaps or projects
• - Excellent communication skills — able to translate complex science into clear, actionable insights for technical and non-technical stakeholders
• - Comfortable in a fast‑paced, high‑iteration environment , moving quickly from prototype → experiment → insight
• - Strong passion for building at the intersection of biology and machine learning