Forward Deployed Computational Biologist

Owkin • Boston, MA

8d

About The Position

Owkin is seeking a Forward Deployed Computational Biologist to work at the intersection of AI, software systems, and biology. The role works directly with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to design, build, and deploy production-grade AI solutions for complex scientific problems within Owkin’s agentic platform, K Pro.

This is a hands-on, client-facing position involving work at customer premises. The successful candidate will turn ambiguous scientific challenges, such as discovering novel drug targets or disease subtypes, into reliable and scalable agentic solutions. The role is responsible for scientific rigor in analytical workflows and technical robustness in implementation and deployment, bridging scientific research and real-world application.

The position requires frequent international travel to support global operations and client needs. Anticipated destinations include Owkin’s Paris office and client premises across the UK, US, France, Germany, and Switzerland. The candidate must live close to a major international airport or major train station. Participation in a team-wide on-call rotation is required.

Requirements

• MSc or PhD in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Biology, Computer Science, or a related field.
• Proven expertise and impact analyzing complex data, such as real-world clinical data, multimodal omics (for example, bulk, spatial or single-cell data, and proteomics), and high-throughput experimental data.
• Strong knowledge of molecular biology and at least one major therapeutic area, such as oncology, immunology and inflammation, or neurology.
• Ability to work in fast-paced environments, manage ambiguity, and drive progress toward delivery.
• Very strong Python programming skills, including exploratory analysis, data visualization, and writing clean, production-grade code.
• Strong familiarity with coding agents.
• Familiarity with machine-learning concepts, such as cross-validation and statistical tests, and frameworks such as scikit-learn and XGBoost.
• Exceptional ability to communicate scientific complexity to non-technical internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to be based close to a major international airport or major train station to facilitate frequent travel.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with LLMs and agentic AI frameworks.
• Experience in a biotech or pharmaceutical environment and a strong understanding of the stages and needs of a typical pharmaceutical drug-discovery pipeline.
• Demonstrated ability to write production-level code in deployed products.

Responsibilities

• Tailor Owkin’s K Pro agentic AI platform to specific client needs by implementing analytical workflows and integrating the platform into clients’ existing workflows.
• Translate complex biological and operational questions into computational workflows using clinical and multi-omics data and computational biology methodologies.
• Rapidly prototype and iterate with users to validate solutions, balancing speed and quality and aiming for measurable impact.
• Collaborate with Customer Success Managers, R&D data scientists, biologists, and software engineers to deliver high-quality scientific insights.
• Communicate scientific and technical information to stakeholders including clinicians, biologists, and engineering teams to support alignment and adoption.
• Participate in a team-wide on-call rotation.
• Travel frequently internationally to support global operations and client needs.

Benefits

• Flexible work organization.
• Friendly and informal working environment.
• Opportunity to work with an international team with high technical and scientific backgrounds.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time