AI Researcher

Talus Bio • Seattle, WA

22h • Onsite

About The Position

Talus Bio is seeking an AI Researcher to join its team full-time in person at its Seattle office. The role focuses on improving Ptarmigan, the company’s structure-free model for predicting which small molecules engage which proteins across the human proteome, and building additional models for drug discovery programs and partners. Ptarmigan is trained on Talus Bio chemoproteomics data comprising hundreds of millions of compound-protein measurements collected in native human cells, including measurements involving transcription factors and proteins without good structures.

The researcher will work closely with multidisciplinary scientists to choose models, metrics, and features that advance discovery, and with the Product and Applications Lead to understand partner needs. Success is measured by the value models deliver to early discovery and molecule optimization, not just in silico metrics. The position is intended for a machine learning researcher with drug-discovery experience who wants to shape modeling at a small preclinical biotech. The level will be set as AI Researcher or Senior AI Researcher based on experience.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in machine learning, computer science, computational chemistry, bioinformatics, or a related field, with at least 2 years of industry or postdoctoral experience; or an M.S. with at least 5 years of industry experience.
• Experience applying machine learning to small molecules or protein-ligand interactions in a drug-discovery setting.
• Experience designing and training deep learning models on molecular or protein data using PyTorch or a similar framework.
• Fluency in Python and Git, and experience training models on GPUs in the cloud.
• Ability to explain models, results, and limitations to chemists, biologists, and other non-computational colleagues.
• Experience building software and managing projects using agentic AI tools such as Claude Code or OpenAI Codex.
• Ability to work onsite in Seattle.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

Nice To Haves

• Experience building models used in a preclinical program for hit discovery, hit-to-lead, or lead optimization.
• Experience with generative models for small molecules, such as diffusion, flow matching, or chemical language models.
• Experience building protein language models or structure-based models, such as Boltz, AlphaFold, or docking.
• Experience with proteomics, mass spectrometry, or chemoproteomics data, including activity-based protein profiling.
• Experience building custom LLM agents or tools that use the Model Context Protocol (MCP).
• A record of publications or open-source software in machine learning for biology or chemistry.
• Experience with active learning, uncertainty estimation, or Bayesian optimization.
• Experience leading ML projects or mentoring other scientists.

Responsibilities

• Develop new architectures, training objectives, and data representations to improve Ptarmigan’s predictions of compound-protein engagement.
• Develop protein-ligand interaction and generative chemistry models for hit discovery, hit-to-lead campaigns, and lead optimization, particularly for targets without structures or known binding pockets.
• Design practical benchmarks, held-out data splits, and baselines, including docking and structure-based co-folding models; report model limitations and failure cases.
• Collaborate with experimental scientists to select compounds and experiments for prospective validation and active learning.
• Build tools and agents that call models through APIs and MCP so scientists and AI agents can run virtual screens and interpret results.
• Write tested, version-controlled code and take models from research into production, collaborating on cloud training and inference infrastructure.
• Present plans and results at R&D meetings and to partners, and publish papers, preprints, and open-source software when they advance the science.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance with 100% company-paid premiums for employees and 60% company-paid premiums for dependents.
• Commuter and transportation reimbursement program.
• 401(k) plan with a Talus Bio contribution regardless of employee contribution.
• Basic life and AD&D insurance with 100% company-paid premiums.
• Short- and long-term disability insurance with 100% company-paid premiums.
• Paid sick leave.
• Generous paid time off and holidays, including a paid end-of-year shutdown.
• Weekly meals, snacks, and drinks.
• Flexible working hours.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level