Principal Scientist, Machine Learning (Large Language Models)

The Company

Flagship Labs 97 Inc. (FL97) is a privately held, early-stage biotechnology company pioneering the application of artificial intelligence to transform every aspect of the scientific method. FL97 is backed by Flagship Pioneering, which brings the courage, long-term vision, and resources needed to realize unreasonable results. Join our mission-driven team and contribute to the future of biotech.

The Role

FL97 is seeking an experienced, creative, and talented Principal Scientist, ML (LLMs) to join our team. You will be part of an agile, cross-functional team responsible for training state-of-the-art, large-scale models on the scientific corpora, fine-tuning models with feedback (e.g. RLHF/DPO) and integrating multimodal scientific data. Together with biologists, bioinformaticians, software developers, and automation engineers, you will work on reimagining the way scientific research is conducted.

The ideal candidate has a machine learning background, with previous experience building large-scale generative models, complex pre-processing pipelines, and comprehensive benchmarks to support scientific tasks. Mature software engineering skills and familiarity with best practices in software development are also highly desired.

Candidates should have experience and/or interest in:

• Designing, training, and fine-tuning large language models (LLMs), including the ability to successfully adapt an LLM for use in a specific domain.
• Leveraging NLP tools to solve real world problems that require sequential decision making.
• Implementing rigorous testing, documentation, and model benchmarking.

Qualifications:

1. PhD in computer science, applied mathematics, physics, computational biology or other quantitative disciplines.
2. 5+ years of experience in developing deep learning and/or NLP models.
3. Contributions to research conferences or journals (e.g. NeurIPS, ICML, AAAI, ICLR)
4. Expertise in at least one ML framework (PyTorch/TensorFlow/Jax) and robust experience in the Python data science ecosystem.
5. Experience in training and deploying ML models on distributed computing services (g. AWS/GCP/Azure, or clusters).
6. Bonus: Experience with knowledge graphs, prompting techniques (e.g., Chain-of-Thought), RAG, and/or autonomous agents.
7. Bonus: Incorporating these models into AI-enabled toolchains for the biology lab.

Working at FL97, you would have access to advanced technology in the areas of:

• AI experimental design and simulation
• Automated liquid handling and instrumentation
• Generative molecular design

More About Flagship Pioneering

Flagship Pioneering is a biotechnology 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, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies, 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 and our ecosystem companies are 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. If you have some of the experience listed above but not all, please apply anyway. 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.