Senior AI Research Scientist, Explainable Artificial Intelligence

Merck Company
Cambridge, US
Hybrid

Job Description

Job Description

Our Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning (AI/ML) capabilities are critical accelerators to our mission of inventing new medicines that save and improve lives. Core to the Data, AI, and Genome Sciences (DAGS) function is an AI/ML-first approach to improving target and biomarker discovery and elucidating complex disease mechanisms. As a senior AI scientist, you will be responsible for extracting biological insights from foundation models, developing new methods for post-hoc and intrinsic explainability of AI models, building rigorous benchmarks, evaluations, as well as fit-for-purpose datasets for answering specific biological questions. Your work will advance our understanding of complex diseases and support the development of innovative therapeutic strategies. You will be part of a cross-functional team of computational biologists, data scientists, software engineers, and machine learning researchers.

Primary Responsibilities

  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams to identify research questions and data requirements and develop appropriate solutions.
  • Develop methods for extracting insights from large transformer-based (and related state-space models) foundation models for -omics data.
  • Establish rigorous benchmarks and evaluation tasks for assessing the performance of AI models.
  • Stay up to date with the latest advancements in machine learning and statistics and apply relevant advancements to improve existing methodologies and models.
  • Publish research findings in relevant conferences and journals and actively contribute to the scientific community through knowledge sharing and collaborations.

Required Education, Experience and Skills

  • PhD, MS, or BS in Computer Science, Statistics, Physics, Engineering, Mathematics, Data Science, AI/Machine Learning, Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, or related STEM field and 0-3+ years of full-time experience (with PhD), 4+ years of experience (with MS), or 7+ years of experience (with BS).
  • Demonstrated experience in using biological foundation models for solving classical bioinformatics tasks, extracting new biological insights, and critically assessing model outputs.
  • Demonstrated expertise in classical machine learning as well as modern deep learning approaches with a particular emphasis on graph neural networks.
  • Experience in fine-tuning, evaluating, and debugging modern AI models and data at scale.
  • Excellent software design and development skills and strong proficiency in Python.
  • Experience with standard deep learning frameworks like the PyTorch ecosystem for working with large foundation models.
  • Excellent communication skills and ability to work collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary team.

Preferred Skills and Experience

  • Experience working with models that require multiple GPUs for inference.
  • Relevant publications in scientific journals and experience contributing to research communities, including NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, etc
  • Experience with multi-modal (biological or otherwise) foundation models is a strong plus.

#EligibleforERP

Required Skills:

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Engineering, Data Science, Deep Learning, Foundation Model Fine Tuning, Foundation Models, Genomics, Machine Learning (ML), Python (Programming Language), PyTorch, Software Development, Transformer Model

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

EEOC Know Your Rights

EEOC GINA Supplement

We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one anothers thinking and approach problems collectively.

Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts

U.S. Hybrid Work Model

Effective September 5, 2023, employees in office-based positions in the U.S. will be working a

Skills & Requirements

Technical Skills

Ai/mlBiological foundation modelsGraph neural networksFine-tuning ai modelsPythonPytorchSoftware designDeep learningFoundation modelsGenomicsMachine learningData scienceData engineeringTransformer modelsMulti-modal foundation modelsCommunicationCollaborationAiMlGenomicsBiological insightsAi modelsBiomarker discoveryDisease mechanisms

Employment Type

FULL TIME

Level

senior

Posted

4/10/2026

Apply Now

You will be redirected to Merck Company's application portal.