Senior Director, Head of Computational Sciences

Flagship Pioneering, Inc.; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 223,000 - 294,000; Full time

Job summary

Tilde Bio, Inc. seeks a visionary, hands-on computational leader to build and lead the computational sciences for its nanopore-based protein reading platform.

You will own algorithms, models, and data infrastructure from raw signals to protein identification and quantification. The role crosses science, engineering, and technology development; you will recruit and mentor a team, shaping a long-term computational roadmap and collaborating with cross-disciplinary teams to turn experimental data

Qualifications

• PhD in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Computer Science, ML, or related field.
• 10+ years in computational biology or related area, with at least 4 years leading a team.
• Track record of building and developing computational teams across organizations.
• Strong hands-on ML and programming skills with fluency in modern data science tooling.
• Experience with cloud environments (AWS, GCP) and scalable data infrastructure.
• Clear communicator able to make complex work legible to non-technical stakeholders.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and decision-making in undefined problems.

Responsibilities

• Set computational sciences strategy and roadmap with leadership alignment.
• Build and mentor the computational sciences team.
• Lead development of algorithms and models for signal processing and interpretation of nanopore data.
• Collaborate with scientists and hardware engineers to advance analytical framework.
• Design ML pipelines for protein identification and quantification across multi-modal data.
• Establish data management, versioning standards, and scalable cloud infrastructure.

Skills

ML & Data Science

Leadership

Clear communication

Ambiguity tolerance

Programming proficiency

Education

PhD in Computational Biology / Bioinformatics / CS / ML

Tools

AWS

GCP

Data infrastructure

ML pipelines

Job description

About Tilde (FL110)

Tilde Bio, Inc. (FL110) is building a next-generation biological sensing platform at the intersection of synthetic biology, protein engineering, nanopore biophysics, electrophysiology, signal processing, and machine learning. Our goal is to create programmable biological measurement systems capable of extracting rich molecular information from single-molecule interactions.

About Tilde (FL110)

Tilde Bio, Inc. (FL110) is building a next-generation biological sensing platform at the intersection of synthetic biology, protein engineering, nanopore biophysics, electrophysiology, signal processing, and machine learning. Our goal is to create programmable biological measurement systems capable of extracting rich molecular information from single-molecule interactions.

We believe nanopores generate a high-dimensional measurement of molecular identity and behavior that remains largely untapped. Unlocking that information requires new computational approaches — ones that don't yet exist — built by people who are comfortable working at the edge of what's known. At Tilde, you will work alongside scientists and engineers from diverse disciplines to help define how a new generation of biological sensing systems extract meaning from the physical world.

Tilde is backed by Flagship Pioneering, which brings the long-term vision and resources needed to build platforms that don't fit neatly into existing categories.

Position Summary

We are looking for a visionary, hands-on computational leader to build-out and lead Tilde's computational sciences. This person will own the algorithms, models, and data infrastructure that sit at the heart of our nanopore-based protein reading platform — from raw signal processing through to protein identification and quantification.

The role is cross-functional by design. You will be embedded in the science, working directly with nanopore scientists, protein engineers, and the technology development team to turn experimental data into platform insight. At the same time, you will be building a team and shaping a longer-term computational roadmap.

The right candidate has strong technical depth in machine learning and computational biology, has led teams before, and is comfortable operating in an environment where the science is still being defined.

Key Responsibilities

Computational Strategy & Platform Vision

• Set the computational sciences strategy and roadmap, working with the leadership team to align priorities with where the platform needs to go.
• Build the computational sciences team — recruiting, mentoring, and creating an environment where scientists do their best work and remain current on latest developments in their field.

Computational Sciences Research

• Lead development of algorithms and models for processing, decoding, and interpreting signals from Tilde's nanopore-based protein reading platform.
• Work closely with nanopore scientists and hardware engineers to advance a fast-evolving analytical framework.
• Design and implement ML pipelines for protein identification, classification, and quantification, drawing on multi-modal datasets spanning proteomic, genomic, and platform-generated data.
• Establish data management practices, versioning standards, and analytical SOPs that support reproducible, scalable science, including creating and maintenance of cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS) that can handle platform-scale data generation.

Leadership

• Partner with research, molecular engineering, data science, and technology development — making sure computational capabilities stay integrated with what the experimental teams need.
• Work with program leads on data generation strategies, experimental designs, and analysis frameworks.
• Work with external collaborators or consultants, as needed, to accelerate our research productivity.
• Identify and protect novel computational methods as part of Tilde's IP strategy.
• Communicate technical progress clearly to leadership and, where relevant, to external partners and investors.

Qualifications

Required

• PhD in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience in computational biology or a closely related area, with at least 4 years leading a team.
• Track record of building and developing strong computational teams across different organizations.
• Strong hands-on ML and programming skills, with fluency in modern data science tooling.
• Experience with cloud environments (e.g., AWS, GCP) and building scalable data infrastructure.
• Clear communicator — able to make complex computational work legible to experimental scientists and non-technical stakeholders alike.
• Comfortable with ambiguity; able to make good decisions and keep teams moving when the problem is still being defined.

Nice to Have

• Experience with time-series signal analysis from sequencing, electrophysiology, or related sensing platforms.
• Background in proteomics, single-molecule biophysics, or life science platform technologies.
• Familiarity with protein structure, function, or engineering.
• Experience with NGS data analysis and bioinformatics tool development.
• Prior experience at a venture-backed biotech or life science tools company.
• History of contributing to IP and scientific publications.

About Flagship Pioneering

Flagship Pioneering is a bio-platform innovation company that invents and builds platform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $90 billion in aggregate value. Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity's most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture. Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE's "Change the World" list, and has been twice named to Fast Company's annual list of the World's Most Innovative Companies. Learn more about Flagship at www.flagshippioneering.com.

Flagship Pioneering is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.

At Flagship, we recognize there is no perfect candidate. Experience comes in many forms, skills are transferable, and passion goes a long way. We are dedicated to building diverse and inclusive teams and look forward to learning more about your unique background.

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies

Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, "FSP") do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering's internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.

The salary range for this role is $223,000 - $294,250.

Compensation for the role will depend on a number of factors, including a candidate’s qualifications, skills, competencies, and experience. FL110 currently offers healthcare coverage, annual incentive program, retirement benefits and a broad range of other benefits. Compensation and benefits information is based on FL110's good faith estimate as of the date of publication and may be modified in the future.

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