Data Scientist; Research Associate; Term

Department: CSB - Ctr for Syn Bio

Salary/Grade: RES/

Job Summary: The AI-Driven, Rapid, Experimental Automation Machine (DREAM) Cloud Lab for Protein Engineering aims to be a national user facility that will accelerate the engineering of proteins for a range of important biotechnology applications spanning manufacturing, materials, medicine, waste recycling, agriculture, food, mining and more. Through creating and operating an automated cell-free protein synthesis and characterization wet-lab, connected through an AI-directed protein design-build-test-learn framework, DREAM will enable users from across the U.S. to engineer custom proteins in rapid, automated, accessible and reliable steps instead of the months to years required with current practices.

DREAM will be housed in the Northwestern Center for Synthetic Biology (NU CSB), a world-renowned center for engineering impactful biotechnologies.

DREAM is seeking to hire a Research Associate who will serve as an AI Research Scientist. The AI Research Scientist will develop and maintain AI-driven protein engineering workflows that enable automated application of a suite of AI protein design algorithms, analysis of experimental data, and active learning workflows. This position will also lead the creation and maintenance of agentic AI, data warehousing, and user interface layers that will underpin DREAM operations and user interfaces.

In addition, the AI Research Scientist will work closely with internal NU CSB users, external users and DREAM wet lab staff to understand specific protein engineering projects and design and implement AI algorithms to execute them. This role will manage a portfolio spanning machine learning, data engineering, and scientific computing to accelerate protein engineering efforts. The AI Research Scientist will work closely alongside with the Node Director, Professor Julius Lucks, the Data and AI lead, Professor Han Liu, as well as other DREAM staff and NU CSB faculty and trainees.

This is a one-year term position with an opportunity for renewal based on performance and available funding.

• Develop and deploy machine learning models for protein design and optimization, including active learning approaches to implement protein design-build-test-learn cycles
• Build and maintain automated pipelines for data intake, processing, and analysis
• Integrate laboratory data streams with cloud-based infrastructure
• Ensure data reproducibility, versioning, and quality control
• Troubleshoot and optimize AI/ML workflows and pipelines
• Collaborate with wet lab teams to refine modeling strategies and experimental design
• Implement data governance, security, and best practices
• Create visualization and analysis tools for end users

Performs other duties as assigned.

Ph.d. in computer science, computational biology, bioinformatics, or related field

3-5+ years of experience in machine learning and data pipeline development

Experience working with biological datasets, including protein engineering datasets, strongly preferred

Familiarity with cloud-based infrastructure and scalable computing

Target hiring range for this position will be between $120,000-$140,000 per year. Offered salary will be determined by the applicant's education, experience, knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data

At Northwestern, we are proud to provide meaningful and competitive benefits. The available benefits package for this position will include health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance; paid vacation and holidays; paid medical/sick and parental leave; tuition benefits for the employee and dependents; pre-tax and…