Principal Scientist (Comp. Bio/ML) - Director Level

About the role

Helical is seeking a Principal Computational Scientist/Director to translate foundation models into real‑world discovery workflows. You will provide scientific leadership, mentor junior colleagues, and collaborate closely with product and business development teams.

Key responsibilities

• Lead model evaluation and applied use cases to address drug development challenges.
• Serve as a scientific partner to research teams and translate cutting‑edge biology and ML into customer‑focused deliverables.
• Mentor and support junior colleagues while driving roadmap execution.

Required profile

• PhD in Computational Biology, Machine Learning, Bioinformatics or related field with focus on Transcriptomics or Genomics, plus 2+ years industry experience, OR MSc with 5+ years industry experience applying ML to Transcriptomics or Genomics.
• Proven leadership experience managing small teams toward defined roadmaps.
• Excellent communication skills to convey complex science to technical and non‑technical stakeholders.

Required skills

• Strong understanding of ML/AI methods for biological data (transformers, VAEs, diffusion models, classical ML).
• Hands‑on experience with modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch.