Senior/Principal Scientist, Machine Learning Drug Discovery

  • Genentech
  • South San Francisco, California
  • Full Time
The Position

A healthier future. Its what drives us to innovate. To continuously advance science and ensure everyone has access to the healthcare they need today and for generations to come. Creating a world where we all have more time with the people we love. Thats what makes us Genentech, a Member of the Roche Group.

The Opportunity

Prescient Design is developing cutting-edge machine learning for drug discovery, building new methods, techniques, and systems to fundamentally transform how drugs are designed. We are looking for exceptional, experienced machine learning scientists who want to perform high-quality research at the intersection of machine learning and biology that has a direct impact on large molecule drug discovery. The group provides a dynamic and challenging environment for cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research, including access to heterogeneous data sources, close links to top academic institutions around the world, as well as internal Genentech Research and Early Development (gRED) partners and research units. Our mission is to develop and apply methods in designing novel macromolecules. Researchers will primarily focus on the deep learning subfield of machine learning, but should be broadly interested in methods capable of effective representation learning that can help drive and sharpen the research questions we study.

In this role, you will:

  • Develop novel machine learning methods to answer challenging research questions in large molecule drug discovery

  • Work with biological data from heterogenous sources

  • Contribute to and ultimately lead cross-functional teams across gRED to solve complex problems in structural and computational biology

  • Drive publications and present scientific findings at internal/external venues

  • Solve real, pressing problems in drug discovery that enable new portfolio capabilities

Who you are for the Principal Scientist level

  • Ph.D. in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Computational Biology, Physics, or related disciplines, ideally with 5+ years of industry research experience, or MS degree in the above disciplines ideally with 8+ years of industry research experience.

  • Strong publication record and experience contributing to research communities, including conferences like NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AISTATS, UAI, CVPR, ACL, etc.

  • Evidence of scientific independence and accomplishments, including the ability to initiate, develop, and conclude complex projects

  • Strong programming skills in languages like C/C++, Python, Java, Scala, or Go.

  • Experience with one or more of the following: PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX.

  • Intense curiosity about the biology of disease and the biophysics of molecular recognition

Who you are for the Senior Scientist level:

  • Ph.D. in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Computational Biology, Physics, or related disciplines, ideally with 0-2 years of industry research experience, or MS degree in the above disciplines ideally with 3-5 years of industry research experience.

  • Strong publication record and experience contributing to research communities, including conferences like NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AISTATS, UAI, CVPR, ACL, etc.

  • Evidence of scientific independence and accomplishments, including the ability to initiate, develop, and conclude complex projects

  • Strong programming skills in languages like C/C++, Python, Java, Scala, or Go.

  • Experience with one or more of the following: PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX.

  • Intense curiosity about the biology of disease and the biophysics of molecular recognition

#gCS

#tech4lifeAI

Relocation benefits are available for this job posting

The expected salary range for the Principal Scientist, based on the location of California, is $194,000 - 360,400 or for the location of New York is $185,600 - 344600 of hiring range, and for the Senior Scientist based on the location of California, is $167.400 - 310,800 or for the location of New York is $160,100 - 297.300. Actual pay will be determined based on experience, qualifications, geographic location, and other job-related factors permitted by law. A discretionary annual bonus may be available based on individual and Company performance. This position also qualifies for the benefits detailed at the link provided below.

Benefit

Genentech is an equal opportunity employer. It is our policy and practice to employ, promote, and otherwise treat any and all employees and applicants on the basis of merit, qualifications, and competence. The company's policy prohibits unlawful discrimination, including but not limited to, discrimination on the basis of Protected Veteran status, individuals with disabilities status, and consistent with all federal, state, or local laws.

If you have a disability and need an accommodation in relation to the online application process, please contact us by completing this form Accommodations for Applicants .

Job ID: 483988902
Originally Posted on: 7/3/2025

Want to find more Chemistry opportunities?

Check out the 16,759 verified Chemistry jobs on iHireChemists