Computational Scientist (Biology)

Axiom; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Axiom is building a computational toxicology platform and you will help establish the foundation for toxicity prediction using multimodal datasets and collaboration with ML researchers.

You will analyze high-content imaging, transcriptomics, and proteomics from human hepatocytes and hepatic systems, develop robust features and QC, and bridge wet lab protocols with machine learning models to explain mechanisms and guide drug design.

Qualifications

• Biologist who codes and questions tool limits.
• Computational scientist close to raw data and experiments.
• Skilled at finding signal in messy biological data.
• Capable of distinguishing real insights from noise and overfit correlations.
• Excited by high-content imaging, transcriptomics, assays and large datasets.

Responsibilities

• Own exploration and analysis of multimodal toxicity datasets.
• Identify biological signals distinguishing safe vs. toxic compounds.
• Turn high‑dimensional data into robust features and datasets.
• Analyze imaging and transcriptomic data from hepatocytes and hepatic systems.
• Collaborate with ML researchers to improve toxicity prediction models.
• Develop QC systems for large-scale biological datasets.
• Bridge wet lab protocols with machine learning models.

Skills

Biologist who codes

Computational scientist

Signal detection in messy data

Biology-to-model translation

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Tools

Python

Pandas

NumPy

SciPy

scikit-learn

Jupyter notebooks

CellProfiler

Cellpose

napari

OpenCV

scikit-image

Transcriptomics

Proteomics

Mass spectrometry

Job description

About Axiom

Axiom is building a compounding ecosystem to replace animal testing and, over time, reshape how clinical trials are run. It starts with deeply understanding the needs of drug hunters inside large pharma. Those needs shape the world‑class datasets we build from scratch. We then use that data to advance our own ML research, while also collaborating with leading AI labs to improve frontier models’ ability to reason over Axiom’s data inside Axiom’s agent harness. This creates a compounding loop: deeper customer understanding shapes the data we generate; better data improves frontier models, Axiom’s fine‑tuned models, and our agentic infrastructure; stronger models and tooling expand the capabilities we can offer; and those capabilities are forward deployed into pharma's drug discovery workflows, where scientists use them to solve the highest value drug discovery problems. In turn, this helps us identify the next problems to tackle. Today, we are focused on solving drug‑induced liver injury through an integrated data and agentic system already being used by 7 of the top 20 pharma companies and several of the world’s most innovative biotechs. Over time, Axiom will build the world’s largest human datasets across all the major organ systems, paired with an agentic harness that uses this data to predict human drug outcomes dramatically better than animals.

What you will do

You will help build the computational and biological foundation for Axiom’s toxicity prediction platform.

• Own the exploration and analysis of massive multimodal toxicity datasets spanning high‑content imaging, transcriptomics, proteomics, ADME, mass spec, and functional cellular readouts.
• Identify subtle biological signals that distinguish safe compounds from toxic compounds across human‑relevant systems such as liver, heart, kidney, and immune biology.
• Turn noisy, high‑dimensional experimental data into clear biological insights, robust features, quality metrics, and model‑ready datasets.
• Analyze high‑content imaging and transcriptomic data from primary human hepatocytes and multicellular hepatic systems, including phenotypes related to mitochondrial dysfunction, cholestasis, lipid accumulation, lysosomal stress, ER stress, cytotoxicity, and cellular morphology.
• Conduct detailed model error analyses to understand what biology our models capture, where they fail, and what new data or assays are needed to improve them.
• Collaborate with ML researchers to improve models that predict human toxicity as a function of dose, exposure, Cmax, in vitro potency, chemical structure, and biological response.
• Develop computational approaches for extracting meaningful signal from imaging, transcriptomic, proteomic, and biochemical assays.
• Design and improve quality control systems for large‑scale, high‑throughput biological datasets.
• Work closely with wet lab scientists to shape new assays optimized not just for biological plausibility, but for predictive modeling.
• Partner with leading pharma and biotech teams to interpret molecule toxicity profiles and help them understand the biology driving model predictions.
• Help invent the future of computational toxicology: AI systems that do not just classify compounds, but explain mechanisms, reason over evidence, and guide better drug design.

What we are looking for

We are looking for someone who is unusually strong at both biology and computation.

• You are a biologist who taught yourself to code because existing tools were not good enough for the questions you wanted to answer.
• You are a computational scientist who loves being close to the raw experimental data, not just abstracted datasets.
• You are exceptional at finding signal in messy biological data.
• You have strong taste for what matters scientifically and can distinguish real biological insight from noise, artifacts, and overfit correlations.
• You are excited by high‑content imaging, transcriptomics, assay development, and the possibility of building the world’s largest experimental‑to‑clinical datasets.
• You are obsessive about data quality, reproducibility, and scientific rigor.
• You can bridge wet lab protocols and machine learning models, understanding how experimental design, assay biology, feature extraction, and modeling choices all interact.
• You are excited to work across many biological systems and mechanisms, including hepatotoxicity, mitochondrial toxicity, cholestasis, reactive metabolites, transporter biology, immune‑mediated toxicity, kidney toxicity, cardiac toxicity, and more.
• You want to do science that matters in the real world, not just publish papers.
• You have the ambition to help build a generational company from the ground up.

Technical skills we value

We do not expect every candidate to have all of these, but we are especially excited by experience with:

• Python, Pandas, NumPy, SciPy, scikit‑learn, Jupyter notebooks
• Statistical analysis, curve fitting, dose‑response modeling, dimensionality reduction, clustering, classification, regression, and model evaluation
• High‑content imaging analysis, microscopy, morphology profiling, and image‑based phenotyping
• CellProfiler, Cellpose, napari, OpenCV, scikit‑image, or related image analysis tools
• Transcriptomics, proteomics, mass spectrometry, ADME, or other high‑dimensional biological datasets
• High‑throughput screening, assay development, automation, and experimental QC
• Biological interpretation of model outputs and error modes
• Scientific storytelling: turning complex analyses into clear, credible, inspiring narratives