Machine Learning Engineer in Saffron Walden

Healx is looking for a talented Machine Learning Engineer to join our Tech team to help develop our drug discovery platform and discover new treatments for rare diseases.

Responsibilities

• Build automated reasoning over large knowledge graphs and proprietary methods for efficient generation of experimentally testable therapeutic hypotheses.
• Contribute to building, maintaining and improving our rare-disease knowledge graphs used to identify and reason over novel therapeutic hypotheses.
• Develop agentic tools and workflows to enable our teams to unlock insight from proprietary data and large datasets.
• Contribute and advocate for best engineering practices across our tech teams.

This role will report to our Director of Tech Strategy and will contribute to developing and applying cutting edge machine learning approaches, knowledge graph reasoning and agentic workflows that underpin our Drug Discovery workflows. You will be part of a highly cross‑functional and collaborative team that brings together machine learning engineers, software engineers, bioinformaticians and drug discovery scientists. You will work closely with domain experts to translate complex biological questions into robust, scalable machine learning solutions, and your work will have a direct and meaningful impact on our drug discovery programmes.

Success in 6 Months

• You have built a strong understanding of Healx's drug discovery workflows, our rare-disease knowledge graphs and the key users of our platform.
• You have delivered at least one meaningful improvement to our knowledge graph reasoning or hypothesis-generation stack (from prototype through to production), with appropriate evaluation, testing and documentation.
• You are operating effectively in our hybrid, cross‑functional environment – communicating progress and trade-offs clearly, partnering well with scientists and engineers, and demonstrating ownership from discovery through delivery.
• You are consistently applying and advocating for strong engineering practices (e.g., code quality, reviews, reproducibility, experiment tracking, monitoring/observability where relevant), helping raise the bar across the team.
• You thrive in a highly collaborative environment and are open to discussing flexible working arrangements.

Qualifications

• You have 2-5 years professional experience in machine learning, artificial intelligence or a related field (in academia or industry).
• You have an advanced degree (master's, PhD) in machine learning, biochemistry or a related field with a focus on applied research, or equivalent industry experience applying machine learning to complex real-world problems.
• You have strong software development experience in Python and a good appreciation of the principles of software engineering.
• You thrive in a highly cross‑functional environment and appreciate the opportunity to step up and leave your mark by taking ownership of meaningful technical challenges, contributing ideas that shape the direction of our platform and driving solutions from concept through to deployment.
• You are able to work independently to scope, plan and deliver end‑to‑end machine learning solutions, managing your own priorities effectively and communicating progress and blockers proactively.
• You are comfortable navigating a degree of ambiguity, making pragmatic decisions when needed, and you know when to seek input from the broader team to ensure quality and alignment.
• You are excited about taking on new challenges and responsibilities in a mission‑driven startup aiming at improving patient outcomes.

About Healx

Healx is an AI‑powered tech‑bio company that is redesigning drug discovery. With 10,000 rare diseases affecting 400 million people globally, 90% of which have no approved treatment, Healx is on a mission to pioneer the next generation of drug discovery to help rare disease patients in need. We combine data, artificial intelligence and deep pharmacology expertise to develop treatments more quickly and cheaply than traditional drug discovery. Diversity and inclusion sits at the heart of our mission to help people with rare diseases, and we believe that attracting and empowering a diverse team is critical to achieving this goal.

Values

• Care for Rare – Rare disease patients are at the heart of what we do.
• Grow as individuals – We are learners always seeking to enhance our expertise.
• Win as a team – We strive to remain inclusive and diverse and we celebrate successes and lessons together.
• Innovate and deliver – Our mission requires rapid innovation and calculated risks that won't compromise our high standards.

Benefits

• Financial: Competitive salary, share options, 7% employer pension contributions, life insurance of 4× base salary.
• Health and Wellbeing: Private medical insurance, 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) with the option to purchase additional days to support a healthy work‑life balance, wellbeing support via Spill and our Employee Assistance Programme.
• Hybrid Working: We will only consider UK‑based applicants for this position. We offer flexible and remote working options, home office set‑up allowance, periodic in‑person team days for company‑wide collaboration and celebration.
• Family Friendly: Enhanced family leave policies, miscarriage and fertility leave, flexible working practices.
• Personal Development and Growth: Personal learning and development budgets, regular personal development conversations and career support.
• Community Engagement and Support: One paid day off per year to volunteer for a cause aligned with our mission of supporting patients living with rare diseases; the opportunity to hear from and engage with patient groups and communities who offer us valuable insights into the experiences of those affected by rare diseases.