Director, Applied Data Science

A-Alpha Bio is an early-stage and rapidly growing drug discovery company headquartered in Seattle, WA. We are enabling the next generation of high-impact therapeutics by combining high-throughput synthetic biology to measure protein-protein interactions at scale with state-of-the-art machine learning to predict how proteins bind. We partner with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to enable the discovery of antibodies, molecular glues, and other protein interaction-related drugs. In parallel, we use our wet-lab and computational platforms to discover and develop an internal pipeline of biologics and molecular glues to improve human health.

Candidates local to Seattle are preferred, but remote applicants are welcome to apply. Candidates must reside in the United States.

Starting Salary Range: $214,000 - $238,000 annually

Exemption Status: Exempt

Location Expectations: Remote-Eligible

Role Description

At A-Alpha Bio, we’re on a mission to improve human health by unlocking the potential of protein-protein interactions – and we’re now seeking a seasoned Director of Applied Data Science to lead a team of skilled Data Scientists making the most of A-Alpha’s proprietary data platform and machine learning capabilities.

• As a scientist, you’ll help unravel the intricacies of protein-protein interactions—both to power our in-house drug discovery pipeline and in collaboration with major biopharma partners. 
• As a strategist, you’ll collaborate closely with R&D, Business Development, and the executive team to navigate feasibility, bandwidth constraints, ownership, and action plans for cutting-edge computational workflows. 
• As a manager, you’ll coach, mentor, develop, and advocate for a team of world-class data scientists, helping every member of the team do their best work in an intellectually stimulating and highly technical environment. 

Key Responsibilities

• Grow and manage a high-performing team of data scientists working on computational analysis of many disparate internal and external projects. 
• Represent A-Alpha to external stakeholders by leading data science efforts for major partnerships. 
• Independently identify and pursue methodological improvements and new scientific objectives within areas of expertise.  
• Work closely with colleagues to maximize the impact of computational analysis for ongoing drug discovery and optimization campaigns. 
• Participate in the publication of research papers and filing of patents. 
• Perform other duties as assigned. 

Qualifications & Experience

Required

• PhD in a related field with 10+ years of experience and 5+ years of management experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience. 
• Direct experience in statistical treatment of high-throughput biological data, as well as in the application of deep learning to high-throughput biological sequence data.  
• Familiarity with state-of-the-art machine learning techniques in at least one of the following areas: antibody or protein engineering, drug discovery, NGS-based assays, and/or synthetic biology.
• Proven leadership in recruiting and managing high-performing teams of scientists and engineers in a cross-functional and fast-paced environment, with a history of maximizing and growing internal talent.
• Ability and desire to contribute to applied data science as an expert individual contributor in addition to management duties.
• Impressive technical track record at leading pharma/biotech companies.
• Strong interpersonal, verbal/written communication, and problem-solving skills. 

Preferred

• Experience with contracting, business development, and alliance management in the context of pharma/biotech partnerships 
• Experience with the application of natural language processing techniques to high-throughput biological sequence data at scale. 
• Experience creating and maintaining deployment pipelines with CI/CD tools. 
• Expertise with Python, Pandas, Pytorch, and Amazon Web Services. 

We offer competitive compensation, including benefits, flexible time off, and equity in a fast-growing start-up. Applicants must have legal authorization to work in the United States. At this time, A-Alpha Bio is unable to offer visa sponsorship in any form.

About A-Alpha Bio 

A-Alpha Bio is a biotechnology company that leverages synthetic biology and machine learning to measure, predict, and engineer protein-protein interactions. Our AlphaSeq platform applies synthetic biology to experimentally measure millions of protein interaction affinities simultaneously. Protein binding data is incorporated into our AlphaBind platform to train machine learning models that predict binding from sequence. We use both platforms to discover and optimize high-impact therapeutics for our pipeline and in partnership with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

In 2018, A-Alpha Bio spun out of the University of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design and Center for Synthetic Biology – both communities filled with brilliant and highly entrepreneurial scientists. Since the company’s inception, we have focused on an oncology-centered internal pipeline along with pharma and biotech partnerships to collaboratively train predictive machine learning models and discover and optimize drugs for therapeutic areas ranging from infectious disease to neurodegeneration. New members of the team should expect a fast-paced, highly dynamic, and interdisciplinary work environment. We are building a diverse, meritocratic, and supportive team that shares our values of speaking the truth, shooting for the moon, taking the reins, playing for the team, and improving the world.

A-Alpha Bio is headquartered in a custom designed lab and office space in downtown Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. While the startup lifestyle occasionally requires grueling hours, we strongly value the need for a work-life balance. We are fortunate to be situated in a region that is renowned for its premier outdoor activities, including hiking, biking, climbing, skiing, kayaking, sailing, and more. At A-Alpha, you’ll find many who love the outdoors, but also gamers, amateur chefs, explorers, sports fans, bakers, crafters, photographers, brewers, jetsetters, animal lovers, and artists. Whatever your passions, you belong at A-Alpha Bio!