Senior AI Scientist/Lead AI Scientist United Kingdom

ABOUT US

Owkin is an agentic AI company pioneering Biological Artificial Superintelligence to solve problems in biology where human researchers alone have failed.

Owkin builds K Pro - an AI scientist for pharmaceutical research and strategic decision-making.

K Pro orchestrates a suite of AI skills and tools to decode complex biology, accelerate research, and dramatically increase productivity.

K Pro is built on Owkin’s unrivalled multimodal patient data network, state-of-the-art AI for biology and a decade of experience working with pharmaceutical partners.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are looking for a visionary ML/AI Scientist to lead the development of our AI Scientist—an autonomous agentic system designed to navigate the complexities of drug discovery.

This role isn't just about training models; it's about building "scientists in a box" that can reason over biological data, design experiments, and autonomously drive therapeutic breakthroughs.

Unlike traditional ML roles that focus on single-task optimization, you will be building a meta-researcher.

You’ll be at the heart of Owkin’s mission, creating the engine that will discover the next generation of life‑saving therapeutics.

• IN PARTICULAR, YOU WILL
• Architect Agentic Systems: Design and implement sophisticated AI agents capable of multi-step reasoning, tool-use, and self-correction.
• Bridge AI and Wet-Lab: Develop frameworks where agents can propose hypotheses and design "optimal experiments" to be validated in the lab.
• Scale the "Hacker" Approach: Rapidly prototype and iterate on agentic architectures, moving from paper to production‑grade code with speed and precision.
• Scientific Leadership: Maintain a watch on the frontier of Gen AI and Agentic workflows, publishing high‑impact research at the intersection of AI, Biology and Chemistry.

ABOUT YOU

The successful candidate possesses a "hacker spirit"—you don’t just wait for the perfect dataset; you build the tools to find it.

You are independent, deeply curious, and obsessed with the idea of automating the scientific method.

• Core Requirements
• Demonstrated Expertise in Agentic AI: Deep understanding of LLM reasoning (Chain-of-Thought, Re Act), long-context management, and tool-augmented generation.
• The Hacker Toolkit: Expert‑level Python skills with a focus on "building." You should be comfortable writing clean, modular code that interfaces with complex APIs and databases.
• Publication Record: History of contributions to top-tier ML conferences (Neur IPS, ICML, ICLR).
• Technical Foundation: Ph D in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or Applied Mathematics (or equivalent high-level industry experience).
• Communication: Ability to explain complex agent behaviors to both AI peers and biological experts.

Excellent written and oral communication skills.

Fluent in English (French is a plus).

• Team first, highly collaborative mindset.
• Preferred Qualifications (The "Big Plus")

We are especially interested in candidates who bring Computational Biology or Chemistry expertise to the table.

• Domain

Knowledge: Deep understanding of the "central dogma" data stack—from processing raw sequencing (omics) to interpreting the physics and geometry of macromolecular structures

• Closed-loop Discovery: Experience in Active Learning, Bayesian Optimization, or Optimal Experimental Design.
• Systems Engineering: Experience training and deploying large-scale models or managing complex multi‑agent orchestrations.
• Causal Inference: Experience in understanding "response to treatment" or causal discovery in biological systems.
• Industry Impact: Proven track record of taking a research concept and turning it into a functional tool used by other scientists.

WHAT WE OFFER

• Flexible work organization
• Friendly and informal working environment
• Opportunity to work with an international team with high technical and scientific backgrounds
• RECRUITMENT PROCESS & SECURITY
• Owkin is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, color, religion, national origin, protected veteran status or on the basis of disability.

• We urge all job seekers and candidates to be wary of potential scams.

Most of these have individuals posing as representatives of prominent companies, including Owkin, with the aim of obtaining personal, sensitive, or financial information from applicants.

These scams prey upon an individual’s desire to obtain a job and can sometimes “feel” like a genuine recruitment process.

Some red flags are identified below.

Should you encounter a recruitment process that claims to be for Owkin but is not consistent with the below, please do not provide any personal or financial information:

• Legitimate Owkin recruitment processes include communication with candidates through recognized professional networks, such as Linked In.
• Communication is always through an official Owkin email address (from the @owkin. com domain), over the phone or through our applicant tracking system (Greenhouse).
• The Owkin talent team do use platforms such as Linked In and Job Teaser, however if you have any concern or doubt about this contact, please ask for them to send an email from @Owkin. com.
• The Owkin talent team will not solicit personal data from candidates during the application phase including, but not limited to, date of birth, social security numbers, or bank account information;
• Legitimate Owkin interviews may be conducted over the phone, in person, or via an approved enterprise videoconferencing service (Google Meets).
• They will not occur via Signal, Telegram or Messenger
• Owkin offers of employment are based on merit and only extended once a candidate has interviewed with members of the talent and hiring team.

Offers will be extended both verbally and in written format.

• If you think that you have been a victim of fraud,
• Check the identity of the talent team on Linked In
• Check our senior team on our website https://owkin. com/team/
• Check the existence of the position on our website: https://www. owkin. com/careers#current-opportunities
• Notify Owkin's recruitment unit at this address hiring@owkin. com

• contact the following authorities

• [FR] https://internet-signalement. gouv. fr/
• [UK] https://www. actionfraud. police. uk/reporting-fraud-and-cyber-crime
• [US] https://reportfraud. ftc. gov/
• #J-18808-Ljbffr