Scientific Fellow, Agentic AI (AI Co-Scientist Lead)

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 216,000 - 325,000; Full time

Job summary

Vertex Pharmaceuticals is seeking a Director-level scientific leader to drive the agentic AI co-scientist initiative across the organization. You will define strategy, architecture, evaluation, and delivery plans for co-scientist capabilities, coordinating internal development and rigorous evaluation of external tools to augment scientific reasoning and decision-making.

The role is Boston-based with a hybrid work pattern (3 days onsite per week) and requires leading cross-functional teams to

Qualifications

• Ph.D. with 10+ years of experience in scientific drug discovery or related field.
• Track record leading cross-functional initiatives from strategy to delivery.
• Experience evaluating and governing AI/ML capabilities in scientific contexts.

Responsibilities

• Lead cross-functional team to define priorities and deliver scalable agentic AI capabilities.
• Develop internal capabilities and define agentic roles, orchestration patterns, and data integration.
• Lead evaluation of internal and external AI capabilities with governance frameworks.
• Establish scientific validation standards and governance for AI-enabled tools.
• Drive development and deployment across scientific domains and modalities with stakeholder alignment.
• Represent the co-scientist effort with executives, communicating strategy, risks, and milestones.
• Shape AI workflows and operating models for data, tools, and literature integration.
• Influence infrastructure strategy for trusted data access and scalable compute.
• Ensure milestone-based execution and adoption with measurable scientific impact.
• Drive innovation by tracking emerging technologies in agentic AI.

Skills

Strategic leadership

AI/ML expertise

Drug discovery knowledge

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Ph.D. in Computer Science / AI / ML / Computational Biology

Job description

Job Description

For this Director-level role, we are seeking a scientific and technical expert to lead our agentic AI co-scientist initiative across our scientific organization. This individual will serve as the scientific lead on the project, defining and influencing the strategy, architecture, evaluation framework, and delivery plan for co-scientist capabilities across multiple scientific use cases and functions. This effort will span both internal development of capabilities and rigorous evaluation of externally available tools. As the senior scientific leader of the effort, this individual will align cross-functional stakeholders, prioritize scientific needs and capabilities, and drive measurable progress, adoption, and delivery of a trusted AI capability that augments scientific reasoning, hypothesis generation, experimental planning, and decision support.

This is a Boston based, hybrid position requiring 3 days/week onsite.

Key Duties & Responsibilities:

• Serve as the senior scientific leader for theagentic AIco-scientist project.Through matrixed leadership,leada cross-functional team across scientific, computational, and technical areas to definepriorities, translateVertex scientific needs into a sequenced roadmap, and deliver scalable agentic AIcapabilities.Ensurethe initiativeremainsaligned topriority scientificneedsacross projects, research sites,andmodalities, with clear goals, decision rights, dependencies, risks, and outcomes.
• Drive scientificandtechnical leadership for internal development of co-scientist capabilities, including development of scientific systemskills, integrating existing scientificdatasets and methods,anddefining agentic roles,skills, and orchestration patterns.
• Lead evaluation of internal and external agentic AI capabilities. Define evidence-based frameworks, benchmarks, and governance to assess commercial, partnership, open-source, and internally developed options and inform build, buy, partner, or integrate decisions.
• Establish rigorous scientific validation standardsand governanceframework.Define acceptance criteria and ongoing evaluation approaches forcorrectness, relevance, novelty, reliability, reproducibility, provenance, uncertainty, usability, andmeasurableimpact onscientificdecision-making.
• Drivedevelopment and deployment across scientific domains and modalities. Partner withscientificleadersand domain expertstoidentifyhigh-valueuse cases, translatescientific workflows into agentic AI opportunities, and guide delivery from prototypetosupported adoptionwhile preservinghuman scientific judgment and accountability.
• Representthe co-scientist effort with executive and senior leader stakeholders, providing clear communication on strategy, tradeoffs, progress, risks, resource needs, and delivery milestones, withappropriate decisionescalation as needed.
• Shape agentic AI workflows and scientific operating models. Definehow agents, models, tools, data, literature, compute, and expert reviewwork together to support complex research questionswithappropriateplanning, traceability,escalation,andreproducibility.
• Influence data, platform, and infrastructure strategy.Partner withinfrastructureand platform leaders to definefoundationalrequirements for trusteddataaccess, knowledge management, model and tool integration,scalable compute, and reliable expansionacross functions and modalities.
• Ensure delivery and adoption by driving milestone-based execution, use-case prioritization, change management, stakeholder alignment, and evidence-based decisions on where co-scientist capabilities produce meaningful scientific and organizational value.
• Drive innovationthroughtimelyknowledge ofemergingtechnologies, advancements, and challenges in thefield of scientificagentic AI,andleveragethese external insights todrive a best-in-class AI co-scientisttool

Knowledge and Skills:

• Deepunderstandingofdrugdiscoveryand scientific researchworkflows andhowshared AI capabilitiescan addressdomain-specific needs across functions, therapeutic areas, and modalities.
• Deepexpertisein modern AI, including LLMs, agentic systems, scientific foundation models, retrieval, tool use, planning, and evaluation.
• Abilityto define rigorous evaluations, benchmarks, validation strategies, and success measures for AI-enabledscientifictools and workflows.
• Exceptional ability to partner effectively withinfrastructure and platform collaborators, throughplatform architecture, tool integration, scalablecompute, and reproducible workflows.
• Exceptional ability to partner effectively with scientific collaborators, through stronggrasp of scientificneedsin drug discovery and research, scientificdata strategy,andstrategic understanding of relative prioritization and impact of different opportunities.
• Strong strategic judgment, executive communication, stakeholder management, collaboration, and mentoring skills.
• Excellent presentation, verbal, and written communication skills, including effective communication with senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders
• Commitment to scientific rigor, responsible AI, reproducibility, transparency, data governance, cybersecurity, privacy, andappropriate humanoversight.
• Demonstrated ability and willingness to teach,engageand support others as they learnnew technologiesand concepts
• Enthusiasm for and the ability to quickly learnnew technologiesand tackle difficult problems

Education and Experience

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computational Biology, Computational Chemistry, Bioinformatics, Engineering, Applied Mathematics,with10+ years of relevantexperiencein scientific drug discovery and research, or comparable training and experience.
• Seniorscientific and technical leadershipexperiencein drug discovery, life sciences, AI/ML, computational science,or a closely relatedfield.
• Track recordleading complex, cross-functional initiatives from strategy through delivery, adoption, and measurable impact.
• Experiencedeveloping, evaluating, deploying, or governing advanced AI, machine learning, computational, or data-driven systems ina scientifically rigorous environment.
• Demonstratedability to influence senior stakeholders, alignteamswithout direct authority, andmakedecisions amid scientific,technical, and organizationalambiguity.
• Experience assessing external technologiesorpartnerships andrecommendingbuild, buy, partner, adapt, orintegrateoptionsbased on evidence and strategic value.
• Recognizedscientific impactthroughpublications, patents, deployed capabilities,external presentations,or comparable contributions.

At Vertex, we embrace continuous learning and encourage employees to stay informed on advances in AI, technology, automation, and industry trends. We seek talent who bring an external perspective, demonstrate curiosity and sound judgment, and thoughtfully adopt new capabilities that improve decision-making, drive innovation, increase efficiency, and help deliver better outcomes for patients.

Pay Range:

$216,400 - $324,600

Disclosure Statement:

The range provided is based on what we believe is a reasonable estimate for the base salary pay range for this job at the time of posting. This role is eligible for an annual bonus and annual equity awards. Some roles may also be eligible for overtime pay, in accordance with federal and state requirements. Actual base salary pay will be based on a number of factors, including skills, competencies, experience, and other job-related factors permitted by law.

At Vertex, our Total Rewards offerings also include inclusive market-leading benefits to meet our employees wherever they are in their career, financial, family and wellbeing journey while providing flexibility and resources to support their growth and aspirations. From medical, dental and vision benefits to generous paid time off (including a week-long company shutdown in the Summer and the Winter), educational assistance programs including student loan repaying, a generous commuting subsidy, matching charitable donations, 401(k) and so much more.

Flex Designation:

Hybrid-Eligible Or On-Site Eligible

Flex Eligibility Status:

In this Hybrid-Eligible role, you can choose to be designated as:
1. Hybrid: work remotely up to two days per week; or select
2. On-Site: work five days per week on-site with ad hoc flexibility.

Note: The Flex status for this position is subject to Vertex's Policy on Flex @ Vertex Program and may be changed at any time.

Company Information

Vertex is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation.

Vertex is committed to equal employment opportunity and non-discrimination for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to a person's race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, marital status, or any characteristic protected under applicable law. Vertex is an E-Verify Employer in the United States. Vertex will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities, in accordance with applicable law.

Any applicant requiring an accommodation in connection with the hiring process and/or to perform the essential functions of the position for which the applicant has applied should make a request to the recruiter or hiring manager, or contact Talent Acquisition at [e-mail]