Director, Machine Learning, Alzheimer's Disease Initiative

About Arc Institute

Arc Institute is an independent nonprofit research organization at the interface of artificial intelligence and biology, working to accelerate scientific progress and understand the root causes of complex diseases. Founded in 2021 and based in Palo Alto, Arc partners with Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UC San Francisco.

Unlike academia, Arc scientists have long-term funding and industry-like resources. Unlike industry, they're free to pursue high-risk, long-term research without commercial pressures. Arc's Technology Centers and Core Investigator labs work side by side, integrating experimental and computational biology under one roof.

Arc operates two Institute Initiatives:

• Virtual Cell Initiative: Building a full-stack virtual cell model to identify disease mechanisms and nominate drug targets, accelerating the path from biological insight to clinical trials.
• Alzheimer's Disease Initiative: Mapping the genes, pathways, and environmental factors behind Alzheimer's disease to develop drug candidates that address root causes.

More than 300 Arconauts work together at the Palo Alto headquarters, backed by substantial long-term philanthropic funding.

About the Position

Arc Institute seeks an exceptional scientific leader to establish a new team within the Computational Technology Center as Director, Machine Learning for the Alzheimer's Disease Initiative (ADI).

This ambitious initiative spans Arc's Technology Centers and Core Investigator Laboratories, focusing on high-throughput interrogation of neurodegeneration and Alzheimer's disease mechanisms using advanced gene editing and functional genomics approaches.

As Machine Learning Research Lead, you will:

• Spearhead development of sophisticated machine learning foundation models to capture cell states
• Infer gene regulatory networks and causal relationships to predict therapeutic interventions
• Build and lead a world-class computational team
• Make direct contributions to understanding and treating Alzheimer's disease through state-of-the-art computational biology

About You

• You are passionate about machine learning and computational biology, with expertise in applying cutting-edge ML approaches to biological systems
• You excel at developing interpretable machine learning approaches, such as variational inference and causal modeling methods
• You excel at building and leading technical teams while remaining hands-on with foundation model development
• You bring experience with biological data modalities and can translate complex scientific questions into ML problems