Associate Scientist, Post Doc Fellow- AI/ML & Computational Biology for Antigen Design

Postdoctoral scientist position in computational vaccine discovery at Merck, focused on developing AI/ML and structural biology approaches to design stabilized viral antigens. The role combines algorithm development, molecular dynamics integration, and iterative experimental validation within an academic-style research environment.

Responsibilities

• Develop, benchmark, and deploy novel AI/ML architectures for protein variant prediction and conformational stabilization
• Integrate molecular dynamics simulations and energetic modeling with deep learning representations to model dynamic protein transitions
• Interface with high-throughput experimental screening platforms to iteratively refine and retrain candidate models using empirical data
• Author manuscripts and present findings at computational biology and vaccine development conferences
• Collaborate across structural biology, virology, immunology, and computing teams to translate computational advances into vaccine designs

Requirements

• PhD in computational biology, bioinformatics, computer science, biophysics, or related quantitative field (or expected by spring 2027)
• Demonstrated experience developing or applying machine learning models to biomolecular data
• Strong proficiency in Python and modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX
• First-author peer-reviewed publications, preprints, or major conference presentations
• Practical fluency with protein language models, folding models, or structural inverse-folding paradigms
• Experience with high-performance computing, GPU workflows, version control, and reproducible software development

Compensation: $82,000-$92,000 base