Head of AI/ML Therapeutic Design
Flagship Pioneering, Inc. · Cambridge, MA
$350,000–$460,000from the description
Jul 5, 2026
Cambridge, MA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior leadership role heading the AI/ML function at a protein-design biotech, responsible for setting the overall computational strategy, building and managing a team of machine learning scientists, and deploying generative and deep learning models to drive therapeutic candidate discovery. The position sits within R&D leadership and requires close collaboration with wet-lab teams to integrate high-throughput experimental data into iterative model development across the full drug discovery pipeline.
Principal level · 15+ years · Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 8 people in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (data scientists). range 2–15
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $134,944 (middle half $104,979–$169,773). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
This role is a genuine hybrid between a hands-on Principal-level AI/ML scientist and a people-manager (Head of AI/ML, leading a multidisciplinary team, R&D leadership team member). It is classified under 15-2051 Data Scientists because the JD emphasizes deep technical ownership — architecting and training novel models, deploying generative architectures, and driving the LDBT loop — but 11-3021 Computer and Information Systems Managers is a strong runner-up given the explicit team-building, recruiting, and strategic leadership responsibilities.
PhD is 'preferred' rather than hard-required ('Advanced degree (PhD preferred)'), so the degree requirement is set to None.
Location is not explicitly stated in the posting; Flagship Pioneering and Metaphore Biotechnologies are headquartered in Cambridge, MA, so the Boston-Cambridge-Newton CBSA is inferred.
The 15+ years requirement is stated at the role level ('15+ years of industry or rigorous academic experience'), not tied to any specific technology, and is captured as total experience.
Specific ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, JAX) are not named in the JD; only paradigms (Transformers, Diffusion, Equivariant architectures) and 'ML-ops' are called out explicitly under required qualifications.
Cloud/compute infrastructure is required ('Oversee at-scale compute infrastructure') but no specific cloud provider is named; AWS, GCP, and Azure are listed as common substitutes.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): protein design.
Read the full posting
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.