Computational Biologist with Expertise in Systems Biology and Data Integration - Montreal

About Valence Labs

Valence Labs is an AI research and productization engine within Recursion dedicated to industrializing scientific discovery to radically improve lives. Combining the intellectual freedom of academia with the resources and stability of industry, our focus is the development of highly-autonomous systems that will spearhead a fundamental shift in the way treatments are discovered and developed for complex disease. Our research is driven by optimism, purpose, and a shared vision for a healthier tomorrow. We publish in top journals and conferences, are deeply committed to open-science and open-source, and maintain some of the largest and most active research communities in our industry. Our team is located in London and Montreal, where we share close connections with Mila, the world’s largest deep learning research institute.

About the role

We’re seeking an experienced Computational Biologist to shape and lead the development of AI systems that will help in our mission of industrializing scientific discovery to radically improve lives. We're looking for individuals with strong engineering skills, including experience in designing, implementing, improving, and deploying machine learning systems. In addition, we value exceptional problem-solving skills and the ability to stay abreast of intersecting scientific domains. In this role, you will:

• Apply systems biology approaches to analyze and interpret the complex biological data types used at Valence and Recursion.
• Collaborate with machine learning scientists and engineers to incorporate biological insights into computational models.
• Integrate multi-layer biological datasets to construct comprehensive models of biological pathways and networks.
• Evaluate models against real-world, fit for purpose, data generated from Recursion's automated labs.
• Contribute to projects bridging biological data with computational methods and causality.
• Engage with and contribute to open-source libraries developed by Valence and the research community.
• Collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of dry and wet lab scientists to inform and improve our models and systems.
• Present and communicate research findings through talks, blog posts, publications, and conferences.

A successful candidate will have most of the following:

• Advanced degree (PhD preferred or 3+ years of industry experience) in Computational Biology, Systems Biology, Bioinformatics, or a related field.
• Strong background in systems biology and experience with integrating diverse biological data types.
• Proficiency in bioinformatics tools and programming languages commonly used in biological data analysis.
• Proficiency in machine learning and willingness to work closely with ML experts.
• Strong programming skills and understanding of modern software development practices, especially in Python.
• Demonstrated capability to understand and summarize scientific content and implement complex methods and models based on published descriptions.
• Passion for working on impactful problems.

Nice to have:

• Experience in building and deploying high-performance implementations of deep learning algorithms.
• Authorship of publications in peer-reviewed conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, ICML, or ICLR) or journals (e.g. Nature, Science, JACS, or ACS)
• Contribution to high-visibility ML codebases.

Valence Labs is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment, where understanding and accommodating personal needs and preferences is a priority. Join our multidisciplinary team of passionate researchers, eager to push the boundaries of ML research and contribute to industrializing scientific discovery to radically improve lives.