AI Protein Design Lead


Company:	Hays Specialist Recruitment
Salary:	Not specified
Hours:	Full-time
Location:	London, EC2V 6DB
Working pattern:	Hybrid - 2 days remote
Job type:	Permanent
Posting date:	24 Jul 2026
Closing date:	23 Aug 2026

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Summary

Your new company

You'll be joining an exciting early-stage biotechnology company in London developing next-generation therapeutics. You'll work in a highly collaborative environment at the intersection of computational biology, machine learning, structural biology, and protein engineering, helping to shape a core capability within the business.

You'll be joining them as they go into their next phase of growth, with plenty of opportunities for development and progression.

Your new role

This is a permanent position, based in London but with home working flexibility and you'll report into the CTO.

A key part of this role is driving the design and optimisation of therapeutic proteins using state-of-the-art AI models, physics-based approaches, and structural biology insights.

Key responsibilities include:

Applying AI-driven protein structure prediction and design tools to generate and prioritise novel protein variants

Using energetic, structural, and conformational principles to improve protein stability, function, and design success rates

Designing and optimising proteins and enzymes using computational modelling approaches

Applying molecular dynamics simulations and related methods to understand protein behaviour and conformational landscapes

Translating computational designs into testable constructs for experimental validation

Working closely with internal scientists and external CRO partners to iterate and improve designs based on experimental results

Developing and maintaining protein design, modelling, and analysis workflows

Supporting the integration of structural, computational, and experimental datasets to accelerate therapeutic development

What you'll need to succeed

A successful candidate will combine deep computational expertise with a strong understanding of protein structure and experimental validation:

PhD (or equivalent experience) in Computational Biology, Computational Chemistry, Biophysics, Machine Learning, Structural Biology, or a related field

Strong experience with protein structure prediction and design platforms such as AlphaFold, RoseTTAFold, RFdiffusion, ProteinMPNN, ESMFold, or similar, preferably within the biotech / pharma industry

Experience in computational protein engineering, ideally including enzyme design and optimisation

Hands-on experience with molecular dynamics simulations (GROMACS, OpenMM, AMBER, NAMD, or similar)

Strong Python programming skills and experience with scientific computing frameworks

Ability to combine AI-enabled approaches with physics-based reasoning and energetic modelling

Experience working alongside wet-lab scientists and/or CRO partners to validate and refine computational designs

Comfortable operating within a small, fast-paced biotech environment with significant ownership and autonomy

What you'll get in return

As well as an excellent salary package you'll also get a chance to make a significant impact on the company's cutting-edge research and further develop your career as they continue to grow.

What you need to do now

If you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call us now.

If this job isn't quite right for you but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion on your career.

Keywords: AI, Computational, Protein, Design, Designer, Engineering, Enzyme, Biology, Biophysics, Chemistry, Machine, Learning, Artificial, Intelligence, AlphaFold, RoseTTAFold, RFdiffusion, ProteinMPNN, Dynamics, Molecular, Modelling, Structural, Therapeutics, Bioinformatics, Python, GROMACS, OpenMM, Simulation, Drug, Research, Biotechnology

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