Senior Scientist (Biology) – AI for Life Sciences

About us

Owkin is an agentic AI company pioneering Biological Artificial Superintelligence to solve problems in biology where human researchers alone have failed.
Owkin builds K Pro - an AI scientist for pharmaceutical research and strategic decision-making. K Pro orchestrates a suite of AI skills and tools to decode complex biology accelerate research and dramatically increase productivity.
K Pro is built on Owkins unrivalled multimodal patient data network state-of-the-art AI for biology and a decade of experience working with pharmaceutical partners.

Position is based in our Paris offices or remotely in France UK or Germany.

Please submit your CV in English

About the role:

We are seeking a highly motivated hands-on scientist to join our team to accelerate our AI-driven drug discovery programs. You will operate at the cutting edge of Agentic AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) applying these technologies to solve complex biological challenges in Oncology and/or Age-Related Diseases. As a scientist for AI for Life Sciences at Owkin you will use your expertise to ensure the biological relevance of our AI models and tools by selecting the appropriate datasets features (data-driven AI-based and expert-based) and visualizations.

Your key responsibilities include designing in silico analysis plans for drug discovery tasks including target identification and biomarker discovery; deploying AI models and evaluating the output from a biological and pharmacological perspective. The role also emphasizes cross-functional collaboration including liaising between AI researchers and data scientists. The position works closely with scientific and project leads facilitating seamless communication ensuring biological accuracy and driving innovation. This position does not involve any wet lab work.

In particular you will:

Lead AI-Driven Discovery & Strategy

• Orchestrate autonomous or semi-autonomous AI workflows to generate test and refine hypotheses. Design and execute AI-driven and autonomous workflows for research and discovery using K Owkins AI Scientist.

• Actively participate in the Target ID and analysis plan perform rigorous triage of target candidates and ideas transitioning from high-volume AI outputs to high-quality biological leads and ensuring efficient workflows and feedback.

• Conduct Deep-Dives on top-tier Target/asset candidates to bring them to formal go/no-go milestones.

• Collaborate with internal technical experts to leverage advanced computational and AI methodologies for subgroup identification to uncover novel patient populations and therapeutic niches.

• Participate in In Silico Drug Design discussions acting as the bridge between computational outputs and chemistry/biology teams.

Ensure biological relevance of our AI Models & Agents (including Owkin K)

• Develop and refine functional skills for Agentic AI systems (e.g. tool-calling functions and specialized reasoning chains).

• Work closely with data science / compBio teams to define and optimize scoring functions and multi-parameter optimization weights for target/ assets candidate prioritization.

• Ensure liaison between users and product owners/developers by gathering feedback prioritizing needs aligning score metrics with research objectives and following ground truth definitions.

• Support consistent evaluation of outputs across model versions.

Documentation and Cross-functional Support

• Maintain clear and updated documentation across projects.

• Support data mapping and integration efforts while ensuring the alignment of data usage with research questions.

• Partner with project managers and principal scientists to execute deliverables and communicate findings effectively.

• Critically review work products from outsourced tasks and internal AI-generated outputs.

• Support design of outsourced laboratory work ensuring data quality and alignment with AI-driven hypotheses.

About you:

Required:

• Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences or related fields required

• Deep knowledge in Oncology and/or Age-Related Diseases.

• Proven multi-year experience in industry and especially in applying AI to Life Sciences and/or Drug Discovery and translating abstract AI potential into concrete drug discovery milestones.

• Strong expertise in target discovery and pipeline management coupled with comprehension of the crucial steps of target validation.

• Capability to manage internal AI workflows with minimal supervision.

• Excellent communication and management skills in cross-disciplinary environments and complex scientific projects with the ability to present research succinctly to diverse audiences.

• Familiarity with LLMs and Agentic AI frameworks.

• Curiosity: You are driven to understand how components fit together within a complex system.

• Thriving in dynamic environments where rapid iteration is key.

• Capable of interacting effectively across diverse interfaces of discipline culture and expertise.

• Fluency in English is mandatory.

Preferred qualifications/bonus skills:

• Demonstrated success in using semi-automated workflows for target prioritization.

• Hands-on experience with translational datasets clinical insights and safety assessments.

• Experience in multi-OMICS.

• Prior experience managing Contract Research Organizations (CROs) for wet-lab validation.

• Biologics Expertise: Specific experience with Antibodies (Ab) or Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) is a desired plus.

#LI-HB1

What we offer

• Flexible work organization

• Friendly and informal working environment

• Opportunity to work with an international team with high technical and scientific backgrounds

Recruitment Process & Security

• Please complete the form and submit your CV.

• Owkin is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race sex gender sexual orientation age color religion national origin protected veteran status or on the basis of disability.

• Owkin is a great place to work. As a coveted workplace we are unfortunately vulnerable to recruitment phishing scams. We urge all job seekers and candidates to be wary of potential scams. Most of these have individuals posing as representatives of prominent companies including Owkin with the aim of obtaining personal sensitive or financial information from applicants. These scams prey upon an individuals desire to obtain a job and can sometimes feel like a genuine recruitment process. Some red flags are identified below. Should you encounter a recruitment process that claims to be for Owkin but is not consistent with the below please do not provide any personal or financial information:

• Legitimate Owkin recruitment processes include communication with candidates through recognized professional networks such as LinkedIn.

• Communication is always through an official Owkin email address (from the @ domain) over the phone or through our applicant tracking system (Greenhouse).

• The Owkin talent team do use platforms such as LinkedIn and Job Teaser however if you have any concern or doubt about this contact please ask for them to send an email from @.

• The Owkin talent team will not solicit personal data from candidates during the application phase including but not limited to date of birth social security numbers or bank account information;

• Legitimate Owkin interviews may be conducted over the phone in person or via an approved enterprise videoconferencing service (Google Meets). They will not occur via Signal Telegram or Messenger

• Owkin offers of employment are based on merit and only extended once a candidate has interviewed with members of the talent and hiring team. Offers will be extended both verbally and in written format.

If you think that you have been a victim of fraud

• Check the identity of the talent team on LinkedIn

• Check our senior team on our website the existence of the position on our website: Owkins recruitment unit at this address

• contact the following authorities:

  • FR Experience:

    Senior IC

    
    Employment Type : Full-Time
    Experience: years
    Vacancy: 1