Head of Scientific Applications

The role

We are building AI systems that can carry out scientific research. Your job is to identify where these capabilities can solve valuable industrial problems, develop opportunities through your scientific expertise and industry relationships, and turn those opportunities into paid engagements. Potential applications include drug discovery and materials science.

You will own the path from initial customer conversations through scientific scoping, proposals, contracting, and delivery, working closely with the founders on pricing and commercial terms. Your early work will establish our first customer relationships and help determine which applications we build into a repeatable product.

This is a hands-on role. You will work directly with the founders, scientists, and engineers to choose and contribute to projects we can credibly deliver, build workflows, evaluate results, and demonstrate value to customers.

What you will do

• Develop opportunities through existing industry relationships and targeted outreach to scientific leaders and R&D decision makers.
• Identify valuable problems, understand customer needs and budgets, and define focused computational projects.
• Drive proposals, follow up, negotiation, and the path to signed contracts, working with the founders on pricing and terms.
• Lead scientific delivery, build computational workflows, and evaluate results against credible baselines and experimental feedback.
• Turn successful pilots into ongoing customer engagements and reusable product capabilities.
• Use customer evidence to guide application selection, product development, and research priorities.

What we are looking for

You should combine scientific judgment with commercial initiative and take responsibility for both winning work and delivering useful results.

Strong candidates will bring:

• A track record of developing opportunities and winning paid research collaborations, pilots, or scientific software deployments.
• Established relationships with scientific leaders and decision-makers in relevant industries.
• Deep applied expertise in at least one relevant domain, such as computational chemistry, structural biology, protein design, materials science, or molecular simulation.
• Hands-on ability with Python and scientific software, and experience taking computational work through to experimental feedback or use by other scientists.
• Strong judgment about scientific feasibility, evaluation, and the resources needed to deliver a useful result.

A PhD in your industry is valuable but not required. We prioritize demonstrated scientific judgment and a track record of winning and delivering paid work. Experience with AI agents is a plus.