Senior Scientist (Comp. Bio/ML)

Helical Ltd.; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Helical Ltd. is seeking a Principal Computational Scientist/Director to lead the translation of foundation models into real-world discovery workflows in the UK.

You will provide scientific leadership across model evaluation and applied use cases, ensuring alignment with drug development and translational research challenges. You will mentor junior colleagues, guide strategic direction, and work with Product and Business Development to turn cutting-edge biology + ML into customer-deliverables.

Qualifications

• PhD in Computational Biology, ML, Bioinformatics or related field with focus on Transcriptomics OR Genomics, plus ML experience.
• MSc with 5+ years of industry experience applying ML to Transcriptomics or Genomics problems.

Responsibilities

• Provide scientific leadership across model evaluation and applied use cases.
• Mentor junior colleagues and partner with the research team.
• Collaborate with Product and Business Development to translate biology + ML into deliverables for customers.
• Translate complex science into clear, actionable insights for stakeholders.

Skills

ML for biology

Transformers

VAEs

Diffusion models

PyTorch

Leadership

Communication

Fast-paced

Biology-ML

Education

PhD in Computational Biology/ML/Bioinformatics

MSc in related field

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.

• PhD in Computational Biology, Machine Learning, Bioinformatics, or a related field, with a strong focus on Transcriptomics OR 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 Transcriptomics OR 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