Spheroid Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Job Summary:
Arc Institute is a new scientific institution focused on understanding and treating complex human diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. They are seeking a Director of Machine Learning for their Alzheimer's Disease Initiative, responsible for building a team and developing advanced machine learning models to analyze neurodegeneration mechanisms.
Responsibilities:
• Attract, build and lead a team of exceptional machine learning research scientists dedicated to developing foundation models for cellular systems in Alzheimer's disease
• Develop and execute on a roadmap of interpretable machine learning approaches to understand disease mechanisms, with emphasis on variational inference, causal modeling, as well as modern transformer- and diffusion-based architectures
• Work closely with experimentalists on brain organoid/spheroid cellular models as well as in vivo models, working with scRNA-seq, Perturb-seq and other datasets to unravel causal gene pathways relevant to Alzheimer’s disease
• Develop predictive modeling approaches to identify how perturbations can move cell states from high risk Alzheimer’s profiles back to healthy / low risk states
• Collaborate closely with experimental biologists to ensure ML models are grounded in disease biology and can feedback into future experimental strategies
• Foster collaborations with external partners in the computational biology and neuroscience communities
• Publish high-impact research through preprints, journal publications, open source code, and presentations at leading conferences
Qualifications:
Required:
• PhD in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Machine Learning, Computer Science, or related quantitative field
• 7+ years of relevant experience with a minimum of 3 years of people management experience
• Strong research background with experience in academic settings (university, research institute) and/or biotech/pharmaceutical industry with a focus on scientific innovation
• Proven expertise in machine learning applications to biological datasets, with specific experience in single-cell profiling data and foundation model development
• Deep experience with interpretable machine learning approaches for biological systems (e.g. variational inference methods)
• Advanced technical skills in machine learning frameworks, particularly PyTorch, and ideally experience with model training at scale
• Publications in top-tier journals in computational biology and machine learning
• Excellent communication skills with ability to present complex machine learning concepts to both computational and biological audiences
• Proven ability to remain technically hands-on while providing effective team leadership, mentorship, and management
Preferred:
• Background in neurodegeneration research including familiarity with Alzheimer's disease datasets, pathways, networks, disease mechanisms, and eQTL analysis is a plus
Company:
Arc Institute is a biomedical science and research technology company. Founded in 2021, the company is headquartered in Palo Alto, USA, with a team of 201-500 employees. The company is currently Growth Stage.