Founding CTO/AI lead (Research ML)

This is a true partnership role for someone who wants to build from zero and own the outcome.

You will own the intelligence layer of the system and shape the long-term modeling direction of the company.

Description:

Axiom Compute is an early-stage company building systems to predict downstream toxicity outcomes from early experimental signals.

Drug development today is slow, expensive, and largely driven by low-signal early data and small sample sizes. We are starting with a focused problem: mapping early molecular and assay signals (e.g., 24-hour data) to later toxicity outcomes, with the long-term goal of improving decision-making across the drug development pipeline.

We’ve conducted early validation with researchers and industry stakeholders and built a POC to prove that our method has signal. We are now moving into the seed funding stage with a clear technical direction and initial investor interest.

Founding team:

The current 2-person team combines biology, engineering, and product experience, with a strong focus on early-stage execution and validation.

The team includes a PhD in genetics, and leadership in building and driving early-stage initiatives.

We are now looking to add a Founding CTO/AI Lead as a core partner to complete the founding team.

Stage:

Seed, pre-funding. Early validation completed. Built a POC with a clear path toward MVP, pilots, and fundraising.

Responsibilities:

Own the modeling approach and technical direction of the intelligence layer

Define problem framing (features, targets, evaluation metrics)

Select, build, and iterate on core ML models

Work closely with the team to integrate models into a scalable system

Build and refine the prediction pipeline end-to-end

Translate noisy biological data into structured, usable inputs

Define success metrics and validate model performance

Influence long-term direction toward more advanced modeling approaches

Requirements:

We care much more about your ability to build and think independently than about specific credentials. We are looking for a true partner with a founding mindset and the knowhow to build with us.

Must-have:

• 3–6+ years of hands-on experience building in production or research settings
• MSc or PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, Bioinformatics, or equivalent
• Strong Python skills and experience with ML frameworks (e.g., PyTorch / TensorFlow / scikit-learn)
• Experience working with real-world, noisy datasets
• Solid understanding of core ML concepts (model selection, overfitting, evaluation, feature engineering)
• Ability to independently take a problem from definition → model → iteration → improvement

Nice to have:

• Experience with biological / chemical / medical data / computer vision
• Experience with small datasets, weak signals, or imbalanced data
• Familiarity with causal inference, mechanistic modeling, or scientific ML
• Experience building end-to-end ML pipelines

Bonus:

• Built something from scratch (startup, research project, or side project)
• Experience making modeling decisions under uncertainty
• Track record of improving model performance beyond baseline

Founder mindset:

Comfortable with ambiguity and risk

Thinks in models and systems, not just tools

Able to make technical decisions with incomplete information

Strong opinions, loosely held

Wants to own a core part of the company

Compensation:

No salary at this stage. Meaningful equity and real ownership, flexible based on experience.

This role requires high ownership and sustained effort. Pre-funding, we expect strong engagement and momentum, with a clear mutual intention to transition to full-time, all-in commitment after the first funding round.

Co-founder track for the right candidate.