Therapeutics Architect

Breakout Ventures; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Comprehensive healthcare

Unlimited time off

Parental leave

Hybrid/remote-friendly

Job summary

NOETIK is an AI-native biotech focused on discovering and developing precision cancer therapies. We combine self-supervised machine learning and multimodal data generated in-house to identify targets and advance drugs from discovery to clinical development.

Headquartered in South San Francisco, CA with a hybrid, remote-friendly culture, we value flexibility, collaboration across biology, AI, engineering, and therapeutics, and strong scientific judgment.

Qualifications

• PhD, MD, or equivalent experience in cancer biology, immunology, pharmacology, molecular biology, translational medicine, or a related discipline.
• Experience on drug discovery or development programs with go/no-go decision experience.
• Ability to translate hypotheses into viable therapeutic programs across discovery to translational stages.
• Comfort mixing biology with machine learning, computational science, and strategy.
• Hands-on use of modern AI tools in scientific work with measurable impact on decisions.
• Systems-thinking mindset with the ability to prioritize across multiple opportunities.
• Excellent scientific judgment and strong communication across stakeholders.
• Bonus: experience with computational biology, data science, ML, or programming (Python, R, SQL).

Responsibilities

• Own the evaluation and championing of biological insights and therapeutic opportunities from first look through portfolio nomination.
• Work cross-functionally to drive programs forward by defining questions, decision criteria, and actions at each stage.
• Develop platform-informed hypotheses around targets, mechanisms, patient populations, biomarkers, and clinical strategy.
• Build evidence packages that inform investment, partnering, and development decisions.
• Design and improve AI-enabled scientific workflows that increase the durability and quality of therapeutic decision-making.
• Prioritize across the portfolio by balancing biological opportunity, feasibility, clinical impact, and strategic fit.

Skills

Cancer biology

Immunology

Pharmacology

Molecular biology

Translational medicine

Machine learning

Data science

Python

R

SQL

Strategic thinking

Education

PhD, MD, or equivalent experience in cancer biology or related discipline

Tools

Python

R

SQL

Job description

THE REMIT OF THE BIOLOGIST IS CHANGING

Drug discovery and development is a decision-making problem. We are generating more data and building better models, but real impact comes from knowing which questions matter and what evidence actually impacts a program’s trajectory. We need scientists who can pair model-driven outputs with sharp therapeutic judgment to figure out which therapies should exist, and for whom.

Ultimately the gig is translating those outputs into defensible portfolio calls. This means being deep in biology and therapeutic concepts, while also being genuinely engaged with frontier AI and how that is changing how we work. You will be the architect of new and better systems for discovering and developing drugs.

THE OPPORTUNITY

You’ll join a cross-functional therapeutics team responsible for surfacing promising therapeutic opportunities, pressure-testing their scientific and translational logic, and shaping how programs move through the pipeline. We’re intentionally building a different kind of therapeutics group to support this work, because turning human foundation models / insights into new therapeutic concepts and real patient impact requires a fundamentally different way of working.

As such, the people who will thrive here are also fundamentally different. They bring an AI-native perspective, incorporating agentic tools and machine intelligence alongside their own domain expertise to reason through problems. They’re platform-first, always asking what an AI-native platform can see that nobody else can, and what that’s worth for therapeutic decisions. They’re a drug hunter that knows the difference between an interesting hypothesis and a viable therapeutic concept that can become a real molecule that reaches real patients. And they’re portfolio-oriented, optimizing for the company’s best collective shots and making principled decisions about where the greatest therapeutic opportunity lies.

Key Responsibilities:

• Own the evaluation and championing of biological insights and therapeutic opportunities from first look through portfolio nomination.
• Work cross-functionally to drive programs forward by defining the questions, decision criteria, and actions required at each stage
• Develop platform-informed hypotheses around therapeutic targets, mechanisms, patient populations, biomarkers, and clinical strategy
• Build evidence packages that inform investment, partnering, and development decisions
• Design and improve AI-enabled scientific workflows that increase the durability and quality of therapeutic decision-making
• Prioritize across the portfolio by balancing biological opportunity, technical feasibility, clinical impact, and strategic fit

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

The strongest candidates embrace uncertainty and treat new technology as a candidate baseline for scientific reasoning the moment it emerges. Curiosity drives them across disciplines, where they direct intelligent systems to explore ideas, challenge assumptions, and surface hypotheses they wouldn’t have found alone. But just as importantly, they bring judgment back. Meaning they can separate plausible outputs from meaningful outputs, recognize weak or circular reasoning, and can combine machine intelligence with deep biological and therapeutic discernment to make better decisions. And finally, they are company and portfolio builders rather than single-project owners. They hold strong scientific opinions, adapt when the evidence changes, and optimize for the company’s best path forward for success.

Qualifications:

• PhD, MD, or equivalent experience in cancer biology, immunology, pharmacology, molecular biology, translational medicine, or a related discipline
• Bona fide experience on drug discovery or development programs, with a working feel for the scientific, operational, and strategic go/no-go decisions required to move a program forward… or kill it
• Strong intuition for turning hypotheses into viable therapeutic programs, spanning target validation and modality considerations through translational strategy and positioning
• Genuine comfort in a room that mixes biology, machine learning, computational science, and strategy, where no one person holds the singular answer
• Hands‑on use of modern AI tools in scientific work, with examples of how they’ve changed the way you investigate questions, evaluate evidence, or make therapeutic decisions
• A systems‑thinking mindset with the ability to prioritize across competing scientific opportunities
• Excellent scientific judgment, clear communication skills, and the ability to influence across diverse stakeholders
• Bonus: experience with computational biology, data science, machine learning, or programming (Python, R, SQL), though deep biological reasoning and therapeutic judgment are more important than any particular technical stack

LIFE @ NOETIK

We’re building a company around the belief that ambitious science is a team sport. We’re headquartered in South San Francisco, CA with a hybrid, remote‑friendly culture. We believe flexibility and autonomy matter, but so does spending intentional time together. Throughout the year we come together for Quarterly Co‑working Weeks, monthly All Hands, and an annual company offsite to align on strategy, strengthen relationships, and recharge as a team. Whether it’s a whiteboard session, catered lunch, or our standing Boba Thursday tradition, we make space for the conversations that often lead to the best ideas.

HOW WE SUPPORT YOU

• Competitive compensation including salary, meaningful equity, and a 401(k) with employer match.
• Comprehensive healthcare with medical, dental, and vision coverage with premiums fully paid for employees and eligible dependents, plus access to modern care platforms and wellness resources.
• Flexible, unlimited time off policy with company‑wide recharge weeks (summer & winter breaks) so the entire team can truly unplug together, plus additional paid holidays.
• Support for you and your families including generous parental leave, fully covered disability and life insurance, dependent care benefits, and flexible spending accounts. We also offer a suite of financial and lifestyle tools, including SoFi, Multiply Mortgage, and optional programs for pet insurance, legal services, and identity theft protection.
• A flexible way of working with hybrid and remote‑friendly options, sponsored travel for distributed employees to collaborate in person, and a thoughtfully designed office and lab in South San Francisco.
• A culture of learning and connection through quarterly co‑working weeks, annual offsites, daily shared meals (onsite), and regular opportunities to work alongside exceptional people across biology, AI, engineering, and therapeutics.

ABOUT NOETIK

NOETIK is an AI-native biotech using self-supervised machine learning and multimodal data generated in-house to discover and develop precision cancer therapies. The founding team has a track record of building technology‑enabled platforms and advancing drugs from discovery to clinical development. In a short period of time, the team has built one of the most significant proprietary multimodal cancer datasets for machine learning and demonstrated target discovery using self supervised learning models. Come build the future with us. For more information, visit https://www.noetik.ai/.

We believe that the highest performing teams include people from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences who respectfully challenge each other. We are committed to an open, diverse and inclusive culture for all employees. NOETIK is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, citizenship status, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, age, religion, creed, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, veteran status and any other characteristics protected under applicable federal, state and local laws.