Associate Scientist, Postdoctoral Fellow, AI/ML and Agentic AI for Drug Discovery

MSD

Confirmed live today High trust
Hybrid

Quick summary

Work type
Hybrid
Location
South San Francisco, CA
Salary
$82,000–$92,000 / yr
Employment
Full-time
Posted
2 days ago
Freshness
Confirmed live today
Closes
Oct 19, 2026

Market check

Salary context

Below market

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $213k
This role $87k
$60k $286k
below market most similar roles pay here above market

This role pays less than 98% of similar roles. Most pay $172,175–$254,750 — the blue band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $87k versus about $213k for comparable roles.

Based on 240 similar postings.

Employer

About MSD

MSD (Merck Sharp & Dohme) is the international name for Merck & Co., a major U.S.-based pharmaceutical company.

MSD currently has 11 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $82,000–$92,000 across 11 roles with salary data.

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View all roles at MSD

At a glance

TL;DR · Associate Scientist, Postdoctoral Fellow, AI/ML and Agentic AI for Drug Discovery

JOB TITLE: Associate Scientist, Postdoctoral Fellow – AI/ML and Agentic AI for Drug Discovery The Associate Scientist, Postdoctoral Fellow – AI/ML and Agentic AI for Drug Discovery joins the Modeling & Informatics team within Discovery Chemistry. This role involves designing, executing, and interpreting research to benchmark standard machine learning methods across internal and external drug discovery datasets. The fellow will drive an independent project to design and evaluate AI agent frameworks, refining agentic AI workflows to improve transparency, robustness, and decision-making. Key responsibilities include analyzing complex datasets using statistical tools and presenting findings in peer-reviewed journals. Required skills include Python, machine learning, cheminformatics, and computational chemistry. Preferred expertise includes large language models, LangChain, PyTorch, MLflow, and graph neural networks. The work focuses on automating and accelerating predictive modeling workflows to solve drug discovery challenges.

What you'll do

  • Design, execute, and interpret research to benchmark standard AI/ML methods across drug discovery datasets.
  • Develop and drive an independent research project to design and evaluate AI agent frameworks for drug discovery.
  • Refine agentic AI workflows to improve transparency, robustness, and decision-making.
  • Analyze complex drug discovery datasets using statistical and machine learning tools.
  • Apply modern AI/ML methods to automate and accelerate predictive modeling workflows.
  • Present research findings at internal scientific forums, external conferences, and in peer-reviewed journals.

What we're looking for

  • Must currently hold a PhD or receive a PhD no later than spring 2027.
  • PhD must be in Machine Learning, Computer Science, Computational Chemistry, Cheminformatics, Chemical or Biomedical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related discipline.
  • Demonstrated expertise in machine learning, cheminformatics, or computational chemistry.
  • Strong record of scientific achievement evidenced by peer-reviewed publications and presentations.
  • Hands-on experience building, training, and rigorously evaluating machine learning models in Python.
  • Experience designing, conducting, and interpreting computational experiments, including model benchmarking.
  • Strong quantitative and analytical skills, including statistical analysis and data interpretation.
  • Experience with large language models and agentic AI (preferred).

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