{"id":162875,"url":"https://alion.io/job/variational-ai-chemical-data-scientist","title":"Chemical data scientist","company":{"id":58283,"name":"Variational AI","domain":"variational.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/variational-ai","size_band":"11-50","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"BambooHR","truth_index":null},"role":"Data Science","role_family":"Data Science","seniority":"junior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"inferred","locations":[],"countries":[],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":2,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Matplotlib","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Seaborn","optional":false},{"name":"SQL","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-05-12T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-05-12","last_verified_at":"2026-10-19T02:16:54Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":160,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":159},"description":"VANCOUVER, BC (OR REMOTE IN CANADA) / FULL TIME\nVariational AI is radically accelerating the development of promising drug candidates by integrating chemistry and pharmacology expertise with the state-of-the-art in machine learning. Traditional approaches to small molecule drug discovery require over ten years and two billion dollars, and their reliance on trial-and-error calls out for better predictive and generative models. The current industry standard has progressed little beyond shallow ML techniques and simple graph neural networks, largely due to the difficulty of integrating world-class machine learning research with traditional chemistry and pharmacology approaches. Variational AI is building a generative foundation model for molecular structure and properties from the ground up. Over the past five years, we have been advancing the state-of-the-art, and delivering projects to customers including Merck, Rakovina Therapeutics, and ImmVue Therapeutics.\nWe are searching for a chemical data scientist / cheminformatician to join us in our quest to radically accelerate the development of new drugs through machine learning excellence. You will help:\nidentify, curate, and prepare datasets, ranging from potency and ADMET to gene expression and cell painting; \ncharacterize errors and noise in datasets, and develop techniques to filter and clean them; \nanalyze curated datasets and integrate chemical data into our machine learning algorithms by designing data loaders; \ndevelop ligand- and structure-based featurizations; and \napply traditional cheminformatics techniques. \nIn this process, you will have the opportunity to build your skills by collaborating with our team of accomplished ML scientists, computational chemists, and medicinal chemists.\nHere is the background we’re looking for:\nB.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in data science, statistics, computer science, physics, or related discipline, with experience analyzing messy datasets; and\nB.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in chemistry or a related discipline, with experience in cheminformatics.\nDemonstrated skill with chemical informatics including the aggregation, curation, and preparation of large experimental datasets from multiple sources.\nStrong programming skills in Python and experience with cheminformatics libraries and data analysis tools, including RDKit, Matplotlib, pandas, and seaborn. SQL experience preferred.\nTwo or more years’ experience working in small molecule drug discovery is preferred.\nIntellectual curiosity and drive to excel.\nWe are an equal opportunity employer and enthusiastically welcome applications from women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and members of underrepresented communities and groups. Compensation is a competitive mix of cash and options. We aim to offer competitive compensation aligned with each candidate’s experience, impact potential, and location. We prioritize expertise and passion over where you decide to live and work; however, for collaboration across our team, applicants must be based in North American time zones. For those candidates that live in the Greater Vancouver Area, we offer a hybrid work environment.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3122,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":2,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Hybrid work"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Machine Learning","Drug Discovery","Drug Discovery AI"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-05-12T00:00:00Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":5,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.163,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":158,"expected_fill_days":23,"reasons":["conf:4","win:tail","crowd:junior"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/variational-ai-chemical-data-scientist","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/variational-ai-chemical-data-scientist.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-19T03:23:29Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":1902,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-20T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":58283},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=58283"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fvariational-ai-chemical-data-scientist"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fvariational-ai-chemical-data-scientist"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fvariational-ai-chemical-data-scientist"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/variational-ai-chemical-data-scientist\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fvariational-ai-chemical-data-scientist"}]}