Director, Translational Machine Learning

JOB SUMMARY

We are seeking a Director of Translational ML to join Iambic Therapeutics and serve as the connective tissue between our machine learning capabilities and the crucial questions arising from clinical and near-clinical drug discovery programs. In this role, you will shape and scale a translational ML function that brings the full power of modern ML — across omics, imaging, and other biomedical data modalities — to bear on patient population selection, drug candidate selection, and biomarker discovery.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You will personally drive technical work in translational ML while managing a small team of ML scientists focused on imaging and omics modalities. Equally important, you will ensure that translational biology data and tasks are made legible to our ML models and teams, and that ML outputs are translated into actionable insights for drug discovery decision-makers. You will be a key contributor to the development roadmap for Enchant, Iambic's multimodal transformer model, feeding back translational requirements and use cases that shape the model's evolution.

The ideal candidate combines deep ML expertise with genuine fluency in translational biology, and has the judgment and communication skills to operate credibly across both worlds.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Define and execute a translational ML strategy spanning omics, imaging, and other biomedical data modalities, in close partnership with translational biology, clinical, and ML leadership

• Directly contribute to technical work: experimental design, model development, analysis, and interpretation of translational ML outputs in support of active drug programs

• Manage a team (initially 2–3 ML scientists) working on imaging and omics applications; hire for emerging needs as the function scales

• Translate clinical and translational biology questions into well-posed ML problems, and translate ML results back into actionable recommendations for drug discovery teams

• Serve as a strategic voice into the Enchant development roadmap, ensuring that translational use cases, data requirements, and evaluation criteria inform model priorities

• Co-design experiments and data collection strategies with translational biology colleagues to maximize the utility of biomedical data for ML modeling

• Establish evaluation frameworks that connect ML model performance to clinically meaningful endpoints and decision criteria

• Communicate translational ML results and strategy to internal stakeholders, partners, and at scientific conferences

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• PhD in machine learning, computational biology, bioinformatics, or a related computational STEM field

• Demonstrated expertise applying ML methods to biomedical or translational problems, including hands-on experience with omics data and biomedical imaging modalities

• Industry experience in drug discovery or pharmaceutical R&D, with exposure to translational workflows such as biomarker discovery, patient stratification, or drug candidate selection

• Ability to grapple with conceptual complexities of experimental design across diverse biological data types

• Strong communication skills and a track record of working effectively across ML and biology/chemistry teams

• Experience managing or building small technical teams

Preferred

• Breadth across multiple omics platforms (e.g., bulk and single-cell transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, epigenomics)

• Breadth across multiple imaging platforms (e.g., histopathology including H&E, cellular imaging, high-content screening)

• Experience with clinical trial data, including retrospective analysis and biomarker qualification

• Experience with foundation models or large-scale representation learning in biological applications

• Experience translating between ML and non-ML stakeholders in a drug discovery setting

ABOUT IAMBIC THERAPEUTICS

Iambic is a clinical-stage life-science and technology company developing novel medicines using its AI-driven discovery and development platform. Based in San Diego and founded in 2020, Iambic has assembled a world-class team that unites pioneering AI experts and experienced drug hunters. The Iambic platform has demonstrated delivery of new drug candidates to human clinical trials with unprecedented speed and across multiple target classes and mechanisms of action. Iambic is advancing a pipeline of potential best-in-class and first-in-class clinical assets, both internally and in partnership, to address urgent unmet patient need. Learn more about the Iambic team, platform, pipeline, and partnerships at iambic.ai.

MISSION & CORE VALUES

Our mission is to deliver better medicines through innovations in AI-based discovery technologies. The culture and work at Iambic Therapeutics are profoundly strengthened by the diversity of our people and our differences in background, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and life experiences. We are committed to building an inclusive environment where a diverse group of talented humans work together to discover therapeutics and create technologies.

PAY AND BENEFITS

We offer industry leading competitive pay, company paid healthcare, flexible spending accounts, voluntary life insurance, 401K matching, and uncapped vacation to our team. We are in a brand-new state-of-the art facility in beautiful San Diego with an onsite gym, dining, and easy access to great places to live and play.