Job Description
Director, Applied AI
Our Destination
"Computing the future of medicine"
We are integrating the latest advances in data science and artificial intelligence to develop life-transforming RNA interference (RNAi) medicines. We combine cutting-edge computation and AI with RNAi to make better medicines faster. Our unique approach enables us to differentiate, de-risk, and rapidly deploy our enabling platforms (HepNet and GalOmic) to create novel GalNAc-siRNA therapies, improving upon traditional approaches to drug discovery.
Our rapid and reproducible process has produced a broad therapeutic pipeline of GalOmic RNAi therapies targeting novel genes that have demonstrated disease-modifying potential in preclinical disease models. We are advancing our pipeline towards the clinic, with our most advanced asset (ETX-312, for the treatment of MASH) currently undergoing IND-enabling studies, the final stage of preclinical development.
It is an incredibly exciting time for ETX, as we get closer to delivering on our mission of delivering life-transforming medicines to patients and ultimately realizing the full potential of our AI-enhanced approach to drug discovery.
Our Journey
Great progress demands great people. We aim to make the impossible, possible with a healthy dose of fun along the way. We prize creative thinkers who like to join the dots and love to recognize those that do. Everyone has potential; here, you will be able to realize it fully.
In joining us, youre not just joining a company, youre taking up an opportunity to pioneer change and to shift the paradigm in biotech. Our dynamic environment and team will empower you to take the initiative, explore new ideas, and drive groundbreaking results.
Your Adventure
This position presents an exciting opportunity to innovate with machine learning and AI tools to help drive the development of more medicines to treat more patients. Were looking for a highly skilled leader to join us as a Director in Applied AI & Informatics to help make this vision a reality.
You will lead, inspire and support a team of talented AI engineers focused on delivering faster insights to our scientists that need them, deploying efficient innovative solutions at pace. This is a hands-on position where you will be empowered to be creative, ambitious and bold.
Reporting into the VP, Head of Applied AI you will be right at the cutting edge, owning and designing state-of-the-art machine learning methods that will disrupt the pharmaceutical industry.
Our team is built on the principles of ownership, accountability and continuous development. Your ability and desire to build a team whilst learning is as important to us as what you already know. We invest in your career and development from day one and hire for the long term. If this sounds interesting to you, we would love to chat.
The position is based in our office in Paddington, London, UK.
What you will do
1. Lead the development and implementation of advanced AI algorithms, with a focus on cutting-edge AI/ML techniques, such as agent-based ecosystems, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems, and Large Language Models (LLMs). Ensure these technologies are integrated effectively across the companys initiatives.
2. Define and deliver the AI/ML strategy and roadmap for the organisation, ensuring alignment with long-term business objectives and future industry trends.
3. Provide thought leadership in applying AI to enhance the companys initiatives in Drug Discovery, siRNA Drug Design, Intellectual Property (IP) management, and Competitive Intelligence.
4. Discover and develop opportunities with colleagues to turn business needs into well-defined AI/ML problems. Act autonomously, while collaborating across teams to ensure business alignment.
5. Collaborate with bioinformaticians, computational and discovery biologists, oligonucleotide chemists and business analysts in their exploration of structured and unstructured data using and developing AI/ML tools.
6. Bring considerable experience shipping models into production. Proactively anticipate how model requirements or the data availability might evolve and design systems capable of adapting to those changes.
7. Commit to shipping high quality, well tested code - deliver early and often. Construct clear, relevant metrics to ensure your code is fit for purpose. As Senior Director, you will lead and take ownership of all AI deployments.
8. Stay curious and continually expand and share your knowledge of the drug discovery process, learning how AI/ML can drive rapid and efficient project execution.
9. Foster a culture of innovation, encouraging experimentation and research to keep the company on the cutting edge of AI technologies. Explore partnerships with academic institutions and external AI research organizations.
10. Manage and mentor junior engineers, fostering their professional growth and ensuring they feel inspired, supported and engaged. Your role will be crucial in talent development and retention.
11. Communicate complex AI/ML concepts and results to non-technical stakeholders, advocating for the value of AI across the organization and ensuring executive buy-in.
Skills & qualifications
Essential:
1. MSc or PhD in AI/Machine Learning or Computer Science.
2. Proven track record in leading and managing a team of high-performing AI engineers, fostering their development and retention in a collegiate and supportive culture.
3. Solid programming and software development skills in Python. You should be an expert in modern AI/ML techniques and have a track record of delivering generalisable and scalable applications using good software engineering practices.
4. Demonstrable experience in handling large-scale, disparate scientific datasets across multiple modalities with an understanding of deep learning, NLP, and LLMs.
5. Experience with modern software development practices (e.g. version control, CI/CD, DevOps, and DataOps), and the ability to construct metrics for model and code quality.
6. Excellent communication & interpersonal skills and an innate ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams, including biologists and bioinformaticians.
7. Experience with advanced AI techniques such as reinforcement learning, GANs, and multi-modal AI for innovative applications.
8. Experience of cloud computing environments, with a preference for AWS services such as S3, EC2, ECS, lambda, VPC, API gateway and containerisation tools like Docker.
Nice to have:
1. Post-doctoral or similar industry experience in AI/Machine Learning, Textual Analysis/Natural Language Processing and Transformer technology, pre-training and fine-tuning Large Language Models, building effective agentic ecosystems.
2. Experience applying modern ML methods to problems in biology or life sciences.
3. Experience in Network Science and modern statistical methods, calculus, linear algebra, probability theory and statistical analysis.
Our culture & values
Our success starts & ends with our team - the passionate, curious and collaborative individuals who work here. All are committed to pushing technology to the limit to make a difference to patients, to R&D and to each other - we call this our PACT.
Were not looking for people who are exactly like us. Were looking for people who care about and value the same guiding principles while bringing different ideas, perspectives & opinions.
Our benefits
We invest in your success
1. Competitive salary.
2. Discretionary performance related bonus.
3. PACT awards (monthly recognition scheme).
We care about you
1. Private medical cover with Bupa.
2. Medicash Health Cash Plan.
3. Employee Assistance Programme.
4. Reward Gateway (deals & discounts and wellbeing centre).
5. Annual season ticket loan.
We help you protect your future
1. 10% employer pension contribution (you can also make your own contributions via salary sacrifice).
2. Life insurance (4 x annual salary).
We unlock your potential
1. Personal development time.
2. Departmental learning and development budget (including attending external training, conferences, etc.).
We make it fun
1. Social and well-being events throughout the year such as a newly created ETX Summer dodgeball team, bouldering, pizza making sessions and we even have a basketball court on our roof terrace!
2. 25 days of annual leave + public holidays.
EDI Statement
Our ambition is to have a positive impact on society at a global level by discovering and developing novel therapeutic targets in areas of high unmet need. We believe that providing equal opportunities, valuing diversity, and promoting a culture of openness and inclusivity are vital in the journey to realise our ambition. We therefore aim to create an environment where people are free to be themselves regardless of their identity or background.
J-18808-Ljbffr