Postdoc on Cofolding Models for In-Silico Drug Discovery (AI)

Location: Beerse, Antwerp, Belgium. Full-time role with up to 10% domestic and international travel.

Base pay: €60,000–€96,255 per year.

Company

Johnson & Johnson MedTech develops healthcare solutions across innovative medicine and medical technology.

What you will do

• Design, run, and analyze fine-tuning experiments for co-folding and structure-prediction models.
• Generate, curate, and manage training, validation, and benchmarking datasets, including biomolecular complexes and MD-derived conformational ensembles.
• Evaluate model performance using structural and task-relevant metrics and contribute to model-evaluation best practices.
• Integrate fine-tuned models into end-to-end drug-discovery workflows, including inference, reporting, and documentation.
• Collaborate with computational scientists across CADD, biologics, and AI/ML teams.
• Communicate research outcomes through documentation, publication-ready summaries, external collaborations, and scientific meetings.

Requirements

• PhD in computational chemistry, structural bioinformatics, computational biology, or machine learning applied to biomolecular systems.
• Strong understanding of protein structure and structure-based modeling.
• Experience developing, training, fine-tuning, and evaluating AI/ML models, such as with PyTorch.
• Experience working with structural datasets, including protein–ligand or protein–protein complexes and MD-derived data.
• Experience developing research workflows in Python and familiarity with HPC and GPU computing environments.
• Professional fluency in English and up to 10% domestic and international travel are required.

Nice to have

• Research experience with co-folding models, structural AI, or related foundation models.
• Experience benchmarking machine-learning models for scientific or drug-discovery applications.
• Knowledge of protein–ligand or antibody–antigen modeling, docking, and virtual screening.
• Experience with reproducible research practices, including version control, testing, and documentation.
• Experience with drug-discovery workflows or academic–industry collaborations and consortia.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborative, multidisciplinary research environment within an In Silico Discovery department.
• Opportunities to participate in training courses, conferences, and internal scientific meetings.
• Vacation, parental, bereavement, caregiver, and volunteer leave.
• Well-being reimbursement and financial, physical, and mental health programs.
• Annual bonus, recognition awards, and applicable insurance plans.