Postdoctoral Research Associate – AI​/ML Biological Sciences

Overview

Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Computing and Data Sciences (CDS) Directorate seeks a Postdoctoral Research Associate – AI/ML for Biological Science for an on-site position in the AI Department. The successful candidate will contribute to interdisciplinary research projects at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and domain science, with a particular emphasis on biology. This position is intended for candidates with strong expertise in AI/ML, data science, and computational analysis, who are interested in applying advanced computational methods to biological data and scientific problems.

The Postdoctoral Research Associate will develop and apply AI/ML and data-driven approaches to support biological research projects within the CDS AI Department. The selected candidate will work closely with computational scientists, AI researchers, and domain collaborators to analyze complex biological datasets, build or adapt computational models, and help advance data-enabled discovery in biology. The ideal candidate will have strong training in machine learning, artificial intelligence, statistical modeling, or related computational fields, along with sufficient background or interest in biological applications.

• Conduct research in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science in support of biology-related projects.
• Collaborate with AI researchers, computational scientists, and biology domain experts to translate scientific questions into effective computational workflows.
• Evaluate model performance, interpret results, and contribute to reproducible analysis pipelines and research software.
• Document methods and results, and contribute to manuscripts, reports, presentations, and other project deliverables.
• Participate in interdisciplinary team science.

• Ph.D. in computer science, statistics, applied mathematics, biology, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated expertise in AI/ML, statistical learning, or advanced data analytics.
• Experience developing, applying, or evaluating novel machine learning or data-driven methods on complex real-world datasets.
• Ability to work effectively in a collaborative, interdisciplinary research environment.
• Strong track record of research productivity, demonstrated in peer-reviewed publications or equivalent research outputs.

• Familiarity with computational biology, bioinformatics, or biological data science concepts and workflows.
• Computational skills, including experience with programming/scripting for large-scale data analysis and reproducible research workflows.
• Experience using biological software tools, workflows, and databases.
• Experience with deep learning, large language models (LLMs), protein language models (PLMs), or related generative AI methods for scientific or biological applications.
• Proven exposure to model development, fine-tuning, evaluation, benchmarking, or deployment in modern AI/ML environments.
• Experience working with heterogeneous, multimodal, or large-scale scientific datasets.
• Experience contributing to reusable analysis workflows, scientific software, open-source projects, or collaborative codebases.
• Familiarity with agentic AI systems, AI-assisted scientific workflows, or tool-using autonomous or semi-autonomous AI frameworks.

This is an on-site position based at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. The position has an initial 2-year term, with the possibility of renewal contingent on performance and funding availability. Brookhaven Laboratory is committed to providing fair, equitable and competitive compensation. The full salary range for this position is $71,900–$119,000 per year. Salary offers will be commensurate with the candidate’s qualifications, education and experience.

Brookhaven National Laboratory is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to any characteristic protected by law. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply. We provide reasonable accommodation to individuals with disabilities for the job application, interview, and essential job functions.