Senior AI Scientist​/Lead AI Scientist United Kingdom

ABOUT US

Owkin is an agentic AI company pioneering Biological Artificial Superintelligence to solve problems in biology where human researchers alone have failed. Owkin builds K Pro - an AI scientist for pharmaceutical research and strategic decision-making. K Pro orchestrates a suite of AI skills and tools to decode complex biology, accelerate research, and dramatically increase productivity. K Pro is built on Owkin’s unrivalled multimodal patient data network, state-of-the-art AI for biology and a decade of experience working with pharmaceutical partners.

We are looking for a visionary ML/AI Scientist to lead the development of our AI Scientist—an autonomous agentic system designed to navigate the complexities of drug discovery. This role isn't just about training models; it's about building "scientists in a box" that can reason over biological data, design experiments, and autonomously drive therapeutic breakthroughs. Unlike traditional ML roles that focus on single-task optimization, you will be building a meta-researcher.

You’ll be at the heart of Owkin’s mission, creating the engine that will discover the next generation of life‑saving therapeutics.

• Architect Agentic Systems:
  Design and implement sophisticated AI agents capable of multi-step reasoning, tool-use, and self-correction.
• Bridge AI and Wet-Lab:
  Develop frameworks where agents can propose hypotheses and design "optimal experiments" to be validated in the lab.
• Scale the "Hacker" Approach:
  Rapidly prototype and iterate on agentic architectures, moving from paper to production‑grade code with speed and precision.
• Scientific Leadership:
  Maintain a watch on the frontier of GenAI and Agentic workflows, publishing high‑impact research at the intersection of AI, Biology and Chemistry.

The successful candidate possesses a "hacker spirit"—you don’t just wait for the perfect dataset; you build the tools to find it. You are independent, deeply curious, and obsessed with the idea of automating the scientific method.

• Demonstrated Expertise in Agentic AI:
  Deep understanding of LLM reasoning (Chain-of-Thought, ReAct), long-context management, and tool-augmented generation.
• The Hacker Toolkit:
  Expert‑level Python skills with a focus on "building." You should be comfortable writing clean, modular code that interfaces with complex APIs and databases.
• Publication Record:
  History of contributions to top-tier ML conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR).
• Technical Foundation:
  PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or Applied Mathematics (or equivalent high-level industry experience).
• Communication:
  Ability to explain complex agent behaviors to both AI peers and biological experts. Excellent written and oral communication skills. Fluent in English (French is a plus).
• Team first, highly collaborative mindset.

We are especially interested in candidates who bring Computational Biology or Chemistry expertise to the table.

• Domain Knowledge:
  Deep understanding of the "central dogma" data stack—from processing raw sequencing (omics) to interpreting the physics and geometry of macromolecular structures
• Closed-loop Discovery:
  Experience in Active Learning, Bayesian Optimization, or Optimal Experimental Design.
• Systems Engineering:
  Experience training and deploying large-scale models or managing complex multi‑agent orchestrations.
• Causal Inference:
  Experience in understanding "response to treatment" or causal discovery in biological systems.
• Industry Impact:
  Proven track record of taking a research concept and turning it into a functional tool used by other scientists.

: #LI-HB1

• Flexible work organization
• Friendly and informal working environment
• Opportunity…