(Senior) Postdoctoral Research Scientist – Biological Foundation Models

Applications are invited for a Postdoctoral Research Scientist (SC6) or Senior Postdoctoral Research Scientist (SC5) to join Professor Ke Li's AI for Biology Group in the Research Faculty of the Earlham Institute, based in Norwich, UK.

Background

The AI for Biology Group will be newly established at the Earlham Institute (EI), while building on Professor Ke Li’s established and well-funded research programme in fundamental AI, AI co-scientists, and applications in complex scientific domains such as RNA sequence-function modelling, structure prediction, and inverse design.

Further information is available at https://colalab.ai/

At EI, the group will develop an ambitious Generative Digital Biology (GDB) programme, developing multimodal, cross-organism and experimentally grounded AI systems that can learn from biological data, support hypothesis generation, guide experimental design and accelerate discovery across EI’s research programmes and technology platforms.

The successful candidate will have access to substantial AI compute, including in-house state-of-the-art H200 GPU servers, alongside further capacity through the Norwich Data Centre and access to national-scale AI compute through Isambard-AI. This provides a strong environment for frontier AI development and evaluation. Collaboration with the Earlham Biofoundry provides routes for model-guided experimental design and, where appropriate, closed-loop self-driving laboratory workflows supported by established lab automation.

The role

We are seeking an ambitious researcher to develop foundation models for biological discovery within a new AI for Biology Group at EI. The successful candidate will create novel AI methods for the pretraining, post-training, adaptation and evaluation of foundation models that support hypothesis generation and experimentally grounded biological discovery.

Building on Professor Ke Li's established research programme in AI for science, the role focuses on developing new AI systems rather than simply applying existing machine learning approaches to biological datasets. The post offers extensive collaboration across the Institute, supporting the development of multimodal biological foundation models, AI-guided design-build-test-learn workflows, and open algorithms, benchmarks and reproducible research.

This is an exciting opportunity to help shape a frontier AI for Biology programme, publish high-impact research, and contribute to future funding applications.

Appointment will be made at SC6 (Postdoctoral Research Scientist) or SC5 (Senior Postdoctoral Research Scientist), according to the candidate’s experience and evidence against the published criteria.

Ideal candidate

The successful candidate will have a PhD (awarded or expected within 6 months) in Computer Science, AI, Machine Learning, Computational Biology, Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Electrical Engineering, or a related quantitative discipline.

They will have excellent programming skills in Python and practical experience with modern deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch, JAX or TensorFlow, alongside experience with large-scale model training, GPU/HPC/cloud computing environments, Linux, version control and reproducible research workflows. Experience with large-scale AI training ecosystems, including Hugging Face, DeepSpeed, FSDP, Megatron-LM, Ray or equivalent tools, would be advantageous.

Candidates should demonstrate experience developing, adapting or evaluating original AI algorithms rather than solely applying existing methods. Evidence of high-quality research outputs commensurate with career stage, including publications in leading venues in AI and machine learning, computational biology or AI for science, is essential. Experience with foundation-model pre-training in natural language processing, computer vision or biological domains, including genomics, transcriptomics, proteins, DNA or RNA, would be highly beneficial.

For appointment at SC5, candidates will additionally be expected to demonstrate experience leading foundation-model research in biology or another complex scientific domain; a strong track record of independent or semi-independent research; the ability to develop and deliver a research direction with limited supervision; clear evidence of leading high-quality outputs; and the ability to coordinate collaborations, support junior researchers, and contribute substantively to publications and grant applications.

Additional information

Salary on appointment will be within the range £39,000 to £46,500 per annum depending on qualifications and experience for the SC6 level post, and £47,450 to £52,560 per annum for candidates who meet the SC5 level criteria. This is a full-time post for a contract of 36 months, with possible extension.

This role meets the criteria for a visa application, and we encourage all qualified candidates to apply.  Please contact the Human Resources Team if you have any questions regarding your application or visa options.

The closing date for applications will be 20 August 2026.