Sanofi

Head of Agentic Biology

Sanofi$178K — $257K *
Pharmaceuticals & Biotech
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • PhD in AI, Machine Learning, Immunology, Mathematics, Physics, Biomedical Engineering, Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, or a related STEM field.
  • 5+ years of experience in AI/ML, preferably in biotech or academia.
  • Hands-on experience with emerging AI tools for biology, such as Owkin K-Pro and AlphaFold 3.
  • Proven track record in leading international teams in biopharma or research environments.
  • Expertise in target biology across immunology, inflammation, oncology, rare diseases, and neuroscience.

Responsibilities

  • Lead the design of bioinformatics workflows to automate data analysis and insights.
  • Drive transition to proactive biological reasoning systems using AI.
  • Advance target discovery with multi-modal disease datasets.
  • Provide strategic direction in bioinformatics aligned with R&D priorities.
  • Deliver computational insights for portfolio decision-making and target validation.

Benefits

  • Participation in company employee benefit programs.
  • Opportunity for professional development within a collaborative environment.
  • Access to health, wellness, and work-life balance programs.
Full Job Description
Job title: Head of Agentic Biology

  • Location: Cambridge, MA


Main Responsibilities:

Acceleration of Discovery using Agentic Biology
  • Lead the design and deployment of first-generation agentic bioinformatics workflows that automate end-to-end data capture, analysis, and insight generation across therapeutic programs.
  • Drive the transition from reactive data analysis to proactive, predictive, and autonomous biological reasoning systems.
  • Advance novel target discovery using multi-modal disease data including genetics, genomics, single-cell, proteomics, imaging, and clinical datasets.


Leadership & Portfolio Impact
  • Serve as a leader in bioinformatics, providing strategic direction aligned with Sanofi's R&D priorities across immunology, inflammation, oncology, neuroscience, rare diseases, and ophthalmology leveraging agentic technologies.
  • Deliver quantifiable computational insights that directly inform go/no-go portfolio decisions and accelerate target validation.
  • Translate computational discoveries into experimental target validation strategies with a focus on target biology, drug repurposing, and indication expansion.
  • Present complex data and strategic recommendations to senior leadership with clarity and scientific rigor.


Infrastructure & Technology
  • Design, build, scale and transform existing bioinformatics infrastructure leveraging the modern bioinformatics stack, cloud-native architectures and agentic tooling.
  • Oversee data modeling, data integration, pipeline development, AI/ML, DataOps, ModelOps, and cloud-native platforms to support Sanofi's AI-first vision.
  • Lead the development of big data products including Genetic, Transcriptomic, and Proteomic Data Lakes in close collaboration with Digital/AI teams.
  • Evaluate and onboard AI/ML vendors and optimize resource allocation across platforms and tools.


Collaborative and AI-first mindset
  • Champion collaborative ecosystem building with internal partners (e.g., Sanofi's Data Office, CompAI verticals, TAs and functions ) and external partners (vendors, CROs, academia).
  • Integrate biological, clinical, and healthcare data using advanced tools and workflows across organizational boundaries.
  • Apply agile principles to manage and deliver complex, multi-stakeholder programs.
  • Bring a consultancy mindset and excellent cross-functional communication skills to drive alignment across R&D.


Project Management, Leadership & Mentoring
  • Lead, mentor, and coach a multidisciplinary team of scientists, data engineers, and ML engineers in a project-centric framework.
  • Build and develop matrix and international teams with a culture of scientific excellence, innovation, and psychological safety.
  • Foster a learning environment that keeps the team at the cutting edge of computational biology and AI.

About you

Basic Qualifications:
  • PhD in AI, Machine Learning, Immunology, Mathematics, Physics, Biomedical Engineering, Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, or a related STEM field.
  • 5+ years of experience in AI/ML required; experience in biotech, biopharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, or academia is preferred
  • Familiarity with agentic AI frameworks and autonomous workflow orchestration.
  • Hands-on experience with emerging AI for Science tools and platforms in biology, including Owkin K-Pro, Google Co-Scientist, Phylo (Biomni), Mithrl, EMET, PandaOmics (Insilico Medicine), NVIDIA BioNeMo Agent Toolkit, Claude Science (Anthropic), or other related agentic and foundation model-based tools shaping the next generation of computational drug discovery and therapeutics development.
  • Familiarity with biological foundation models and their application in drug discovery, including protein language models (e.g., ESM, AlphaFold 3), genomic foundation models (e.g., Nucleotide Transformer, HyenaDNA, Evo), and multimodal models that integrate sequence, structure, and omics data to enable target identification, variant interpretation, and therapeutic design.
  • Proven track record of leading matrix and international teams in a global biopharma or research environment.
  • Deep expertise in disease and target biology across Sanofi's key therapeutic areas: immunology, inflammation, oncology, rare diseases, neuroscience, and ophthalmology.
  • Proven experience in advanced data-driven research including multi-omics, imaging, NGS, and diverse patient datasets (DNA, RNA-seq, single-cell, proteomics, spatial, flow cytometry).
  • Strong background in data modeling, data integration, pipeline development, AI/ML-evals, DataOps, ModelOps, and cloud-native AI architectures.
  • Experience presenting complex scientific and data-driven insights to senior leadership and in leading conferences.

Preferred Qualifications:
  • Fluency in AI, computational biology, and drug discovery - able to bridge computational discoveries and experimental validation.
  • Experience building large-scale biomedical data lakes (genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic) in a biopharma setting
  • Track record of drug repurposing, indication expansion, or target validation programs.
  • Experience evaluating and managing biomedical data vendors, large research consortiums and external research partnerships (Open Targets, NIH AMPs, UK BioBank, FinnGen, FlatIron, Tempus etc.)
  • Publications in leading biomedical AI/ML conferences including NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ISCB, AMIA, MLCB, FOCIS, AACR


The salary range for this position is:
$178,500.00 - $257,833.33

All compensation will be determined commensurate with demonstrated experience. Employees may be eligible to participate in Company employee benefit programs, and additional benefits information can be found here.

About Sanofi

Sanofi is a global pharmaceutical company that specializes in the research, development, and manufacturing of prescription drugs and vaccines. The company operates in over 170 countries and has a diverse portfolio of products that includes treatments for diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and rare diseases. Sanofi is committed to improving global health and has a strong focus on innovation and sustainability. The company has received numerous awards for its research and development efforts and is recognized as a leader in the pharmaceutical industry.
Learn more about Sanofi
Market Cap
$121.6 billion
Industry
Net Income
$12.3 billion
Founded
1990
5 Year Trend
+2.5%
Revenue
$37.3 billion
NASDAQ

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