R&D
Where your curiosity drives the
miracles of
science
Principal Machine Learning Scientist for Protein Design - all genders
At a glance
Bring your curiosity to a team where deep immunoscience meets cutting-edge innovation. Across oncology, rare diseases, neurology, and vaccines, you’ll work at the intersection of lab science and AI-powered discovery — all while collaborating across boundaries to turn breakthrough ideas into real-world impact. Whether you want to deepen your scientific expertise or grow as a leader, you’ll find the opportunity here.
About the job
🚀The opportunity:
Join Sanofi's Biologics AI & Design team at the forefront of a revolution in drug discovery. We're building next-generation foundational models that are directly shaping our therapeutic pipeline — designing antibody and NANOBODY® molecules that will become tomorrow's medicines for patients worldwide.
You'll be part of a elite global team within our Digital Biologics Platform (DBxP), working at the intersection of cutting-edge AI research and real-world therapeutic development. This isn't just about publishing papers or building models in isolation — it's about deploying foundational models that directly impact drug candidates moving through our portfolio.
What makes this role unique:
🧬Proprietary biological data at scale — Access to one of the world's largest proprietary datasets of antibody sequences, structures, and functional annotations from decades of therapeutic development
💻World-class compute infrastructure — State-of-the-art GPU clusters and cloud resources for training large-scale foundational models
🎯Real therapeutic impact — Your models will be validated against real targets and integrated into live drug discovery programs
📚Scientific freedom — We encourage publication, conference participation, and collaboration with leading academic labs
🌍Global collaboration — Work with interdisciplinary teams across computational biology, protein engineering, and therapeutic development
🎯 What You'll Do
Build the future of protein therapeutics design:
Architect and train next-generation foundational models for antibody and NANOBODY® design, including protein language models, structure prediction models, diffusion-based generative models, and multimodal architectures
Push the boundaries of generative protein design — develop novel training strategies, fine-tuning approaches, and inference methods that leverage Sanofi's unique biological data assets
Bridge research and application — deploy your models into production pipelines where they'll be used to design real therapeutic candidates against challenging targets
Validate rigorously — design benchmarking strategies and work with wet-lab teams to experimentally validate model predictions on therapeutically relevant targets
Collaborate across disciplines — partner with antibody engineers, structural biologists, screening teams, and therapeutic area experts to understand biological constraints and opportunities
Stay at the cutting edge — monitor emerging architectures and methods, evaluate their potential, and rapidly prototype new approaches
Contribute to the scientific community — publish your work, present at conferences, and help establish Sanofi as a leader in AI-driven biologics design
About you
🧠 What You Bring
Education & Experience:
Ph.D. in computational life sciences, computer science, machine learning, bioinformatics, or related field (or M.Sc. with exceptional track record)
Deep expertise in modern deep learning architectures - transformers, diffusion models, flow matching, VAEs, or other generative modeling paradigms
Hands-on experience training large-scale models - you've trained models with millions to billions of parameters and understand distributed training, optimization strategies, and scaling laws
Strong foundation in protein science - understanding of protein sequence-structure-function relationships, ideally with focus on antibodies or therapeutic proteins
Publication track record demonstrating impact in foundational model development, generative modeling, and/or computational protein design
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Technical Excellence
Expert-level Python programming and deep learning frameworks
Experience with ML/DL models for protein design (ESM, ProteinMPNN, RFdiffusion, AlphaFold, etc.) - training, fine-tuning, and application
Proficiency with distributed training frameworks and cloud/HPC environments
Software engineering practices - version control, testing, documentation, reproducibility
Familiarity with biological databases, sequence analysis tools, and structural biology software
Personal Attributes:
Intellectual curiosity - you're excited by hard scientific problems and driven to solve them
Collaborative mindset - you thrive in interdisciplinary environments and can communicate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences
Pragmatic innovation - you balance cutting-edge research with practical application and understand the importance of validation
Scientific rigor - you design robust experiments, think critically about limitations, and are honest about uncertainty
Self-motivated - you can work independently, prioritize effectively, and drive projects forward
Passion for impact - you're motivated by the opportunity to develop medicines that improve patients' lives
About us
🌟 What We Offer
Scientific Environment:
Access to proprietary biological datasets unavailable anywhere else
State-of-the-art computational infrastructure (GPU clusters, cloud resources)
Freedom to publish and present at top-tier conferences
Collaboration with leading academic partners and external research groups
Opportunity to shape the future of AI-driven drug discovery
Professional Growth
Work alongside world-class experts in protein engineering, structural biology, and machine learning
Exposure to the full drug discovery lifecycle - from target selection to pre-clinical development
Mentorship opportunities and career development support
Access to internal training, conferences, and scientific networks
Impact & Mission:
Your work will directly contribute to therapeutic programs addressing serious diseases
Be part of Sanofi's mission to chase the miracles of science and improve patients' lives
Join a company committed to innovation, scientific excellence, and bold thinking
Culture:
Global, diverse, and inclusive team environment
Flexible working arrangements
Competitive compensation and benefits package
🤝 Join us
At Sanofi, we believe the next breakthrough in biologics won't come from incremental improvements - it will come from fundamentally new ways of designing proteins. If you're passionate about building foundational models that will reshape therapeutic development, we want to hear from you.
Our values guide everything we do:
Aim Higher - We set ambitious goals and pursue scientific excellence
Act for Patients - We're driven by the opportunity to improve lives
Be Bold - We take calculated risks and embrace innovation
Lead Together - We collaborate across disciplines and geographies
Ready to help us design the medicines of tomorrow?
#LI-Hybrid
#ArtificialIntelligence
#DrugDiscovery
nullPursue Progress. Discover Extraordinary.
Join Sanofi and step into a new era of science - where your growth can be just as transformative as the work we do. We invest in you to reach further, think faster, and do what’s never-been-done-before. You’ll help push boundaries, challenge convention, and build smarter solutions that reach the communities we serve. Ready to chase the miracles of science and improve people’s lives? Let’s Pursue Progress and Discover Extraordinary – together.
At Sanofi, we provide equal opportunities to all regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.
Watch 'One day at Sanofi' and check out our Diversity Equity and Inclusion initiatives at sanofi.com
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Why work with us
- Expand your horizons. Grow through curiosity, with support to move, learn, and lead in a culture that champions mentorship, mobility, and bold development.
- Accelerate results with technology. Harness the power of AI and automation to push scientific boundaries and reimagine what's possible in drug discovery.
- Impact through inclusive innovation. Help deliver better science and fairer outcomes by driving inclusive research that reaches more people, in more meaningful ways.
- Turn patient needs into breakthrough science. Drive scientific breakthroughs that start with patient needs – and end in treatments that change lives.
Meet Nils Libert, Associate Scientist
Meet Nils Libert, an Associate Scientist in Belgium, where he plays a key role in advancing groundbreaking research. Learn how his work helps drive innovation, uncover new scientific possibilities, and contribute to life-changing treatments that impact patients around the world.
"At Sanofi, we are building an R&D engine powered by the best science, digital innovation, and a commitment to transforming the lives of patients around the world."
Houman Ashrafian
EVP & Head of R&D
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Our R&D focus areas
Discover how we're reshaping the future of medicine through immunoscience – unlocking bold, cross-disease breakthroughs that were unimaginable just a decade ago.
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