Remote Lead Data Scientist — Drug Discovery ML Leader

Placements24; Pretoria; Hybrid; ZAR 1,800,000 - 3,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Equity options

Health, dental, and vision insurance

401k matching

Unlimited PTO

Remote work stipend

Job summary

Placements24 is seeking a Lead Data Scientist to build and head a ML team in a fully remote role. You will develop models to predict drug efficacy, identify therapeutic targets, and optimize drug design pipelines while steering ML strategy and mentoring researchers.

The role requires a PhD/MSc in a quantitative field, 7+ years in data science with biological data, and strong leadership. Collaboration across biology, chemistry, and clinical teams is essential for impact and innovation.

Qualifications

• PhD or MSc in Computer Science, Statistics, Machine Learning, Bioinformatics, or related field.
• 7+ years of data science and ML experience, with biological/chemical data focus.
• Experience leading and mentoring data science teams.
• Expertise across ML algorithms (DL, gradient boosting, SVM, Bayesian methods).
• Proficiency in Python (TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn) and SQL.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of ML models for drug discovery applications.
• Build and mentor a high-performing data science team.
• Define the ML roadmap and strategy aligned with company goals.
• Collaborate with computational biology, chemistry, and pharmacology teams to translate data needs into insights.
• Develop and maintain scalable ML pipelines and infrastructure.
• Stay updated on ML/AI advancements and their drug discovery applications.
• Communicate complex findings to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ensure responsible and ethical application of AI/ML in research.

Skills

ML algorithms

Python

SQL

Leadership

Cloud platforms

Education

PhD or MSc in CS/Statistics/ML/Bioinformatics

Tools

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Scikit-learn

Job description

Placements24 is seeking a Lead Data Scientist to build and head a ML team in a fully remote role. You will develop models to predict drug efficacy, identify therapeutic targets, and optimize drug design pipelines while steering ML strategy and mentoring researchers.

The role requires a PhD/MSc in a quantitative field, 7+ years in data science with biological data, and strong leadership. Collaboration across biology, chemistry, and clinical teams is essential for impact and innovation.