Associate Director, Computational Biology – Early Discovery

Recursion; Salt Lake City (UT); Hybrid; USD 200,600 - 220,500; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Equity compensation

Comprehensive benefits package

Job summary

Recursion is seeking an Associate Director, Computational Biology to join their early discovery team in Salt Lake City, Utah. The role involves leading a team of computational biologists to innovate drug discovery practices and identify oncology targets. Candidates should have extensive experience in biotech or pharma, with a strong computational background, ideally holding a PhD or MS in a relevant field.

The position is hybrid, requiring some onsite work, with a competitive salary range of $200,600 to $220,500, plus bonuses and equity. Recursion aims to create an impactful and collaborative environment.

Qualifications

• PhD in a relevant field with a strong computational focus and 3+ years of biotech/pharma experience.
• Strong understanding of patient genetics and druggability.
• Experience applying computational methods to analyze complex biological data.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate molecular evidence for target nomination and validation.
• Lead and mentor a team of data scientists and computational biologists.
• Present data analysis to stakeholders clearly and compellingly.

Skills

Technical communication

Stakeholder management

Computational methods

Data visualization

Education

PhD in relevant field

MS in relevant field

Tools

Python

R

Job description

Associate Director, Computational Biology – Early Discovery

Salt Lake City, Utah

Your work will change lives. Including your own.

As an Associate Director within Recursion’s early discovery team, you will be at the forefront of reimagining drug discovery from first principles. You will lead a team of world‑class computational biologists focused on identifying and advancing the next generation of oncology targets and therapeutics to fill our internal pipeline. You will act as a "player‑coach," balancing direct technical contribution with the mentorship and strategic leadership of a high‑performing team. Your mission is to integrate Recursion’s massive datasets—phenomics, transcriptomics, genomics, proteomics—to nominate novel targets, validate disease biology, and define precision oncology strategies to advance our most promising therapeutic targets into full‑fledged drug discovery programs.

This is a highly collaborative role: you will partner with biologists, data scientists, platform and data engineers, and translational experts to develop and scale methods for target discovery in oncology and immunological diseases. The ideal candidate has strong stakeholder management, technical communication, and 3+ years biotech or pharma experience in early drug discovery.

In this role, you will:

• Drive Target Discovery: Evaluate the molecular evidence for target nomination and validation, leveraging Recursion’s platform to identify novel vulnerabilities in disease biology
• Lead and mentor a team of data scientists and computational biologists, fostering a culture of scientific rigor, bold experimentation, delivery, and continuous professional growth.
• Pilot novel methods for target discovery, disease biology validation, and early patient population hypotheses to send programs into nomination cascades
• Define internal criteria for target data packages and early patient population strategy
• Connect your team’s innovative analysis methods to platform and engineering teams so that we solve the current project and accelerate future ones
• Collaborate cross‑functionally: Partner with biologists, medicinal chemists, translational, and clinical leads to build compelling data packages that drive program milestones and portfolio investment decisions.
• Present data analysis to external decision makers and stakeholders in a clear and compelling way that drives toward getting medicines to patients.

The Team You’ll Join

Our group is a bold, agile, diverse collective of computational drug discovery scientists deeply focused on the singular goal of bringing new therapeutics into the clinic at an accelerated pace. Our expertise spans precision oncology, I&I (immunology and inflammation), and neuroscience, and we focus on advancing novel, targeted therapies for these disease areas. We partner closely with other functions to design and execute impactful and decisional data analyses for new targets and drug programs and are responsible for data strategy across the portfolio.

The Experience You’ll Need

• PhD in a relevant field (computational biology, bioinformatics, cancer biology, immuno‑oncology, etc.) with a very strong computational focus and 3+ years of experience in biotech or pharma industry OR MS in a relevant field and 5+ years of experience in biotech or pharma industry solving fundamental problems in early drug discovery
• Domain expertise in oncology or immunological diseases
• Strong understanding of patient genetics and druggability of disease relevant pathways
• Experience applying computational methods (including probabilistic, statistical, and/or machine learning techniques) to analyze and integrate complex biological and/or human clinical data in a high level programming language such as Python or R
• Exceptional data visualization skills
• A track record of managing and developing direct reports within a scientific or technical environment
• Excellent cross‑functional communication skills, including an ability to explain complex scientific concepts to a variety of audiences using a combination of plots, documents, and presentations

Nice To Have

• Experience building a target discovery engine in oncology or immunological diseases
• Experience designing high‑throughput screens with CRISPR or small molecule perturbations to validate therapeutic hypotheses
• Previous exposure to translational and/or clinical development programs to guide selection of relevant models for target validation experiments

Working Location & Compensation

This is an office‑based, hybrid position at our US headquarters located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Employees are expected to work in the office at least 50% of the time.

At Recursion, we believe that every employee should be compensated fairly. Based on the skill and level of experience required for this role, the estimated current annual base range for this role is $200,600 to $220,500. You will also be eligible for an annual bonus and equity compensation, as well as a comprehensive benefits package.

The Values We Hope You Share

• We act boldly with integrity. We are unconstrained in our thinking, take calculated risks, and push boundaries, but never at the expense of ethics, science, or trust.
• We care deeply and engage directly. Caring means holding a deep sense of responsibility and respect - showing up, speaking honestly, and taking action.
• We learn actively and adapt rapidly. Progress comes from doing. We experiment, test, and refine, embracing iteration over perfection.
• We move with urgency because patients are waiting. Speed isn’t about rushing but about moving the needle every day.
• We take ownership and accountability. Through ownership and accountability, we enable trust and autonomy—leaders take accountability for decisive action, and teams own outcomes together.
• We are One Recursion. True cross‑functional collaboration is about trust, clarity, humility, and impact. Through sharing, we can be greater than the sum of our individual capabilities.

Recursion is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, local, or provincial human rights legislation.

Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.