Head of Discovery

About the role

Output has built a biological reasoning model that understands biology at the scale and complexity life actually operates. Our model independently learned the principles of molecular interactions, opening up drug treatments that were previously impossible. We're already generating therapies that traditional approaches cannot reach. The hardest problems in both AI and biology are being solved here, and there is room for you to own one. Output is currently in stealth, operated by a team of repeat founders and biotech veterans with multiple exits in AI x Bio, and backed by top-tier VCs including Y Combinator. You are a drug hunter. You own the scientific strategy behind Output's drug discovery programs. You help select targets for our pipeline, evaluate what the models generate, and make the scientific decisions that advance candidates from computational generation to real-world testing. You will identify and evaluate therapeutic targets, building the scientific rationale for which programs to pursue and why You will analyze model outputs to assess drug candidates, evaluating biological plausibility, therapeutic potential, and readiness for advancement You will prioritize candidates and make scientific go/no-go decisions, advancing the strongest compounds through the discovery pipeline You will manage CRO partnerships for candidate synthesis and biological testing, designing experiments that validate or refine drug design hypotheses You will work closely with the founders and model team, bringing drug discovery expertise to model evaluation and development priorities You will stay current with target biology, disease mechanisms, and the clinical landscape across relevant therapeutic areas About You You have a PhD in pharmacology, medicinal chemistry, chemical biology, computational biology, or a related field with 5+ years of drug discovery experience in pharma or biotech, or equivalent depth through extensive industry experience You have hands-on experience advancing drug discovery programs through pipeline stages: target selection, hit identification, hit-to-lead, and lead optimization You have demonstrated experience evaluating drug candidates and making scientific go/no-go decisions on real programs You are comfortable working directly with computational model outputs and analyzing AI-generated molecular data You have strong scientific judgment across target biology, disease mechanisms, and therapeutic modalities You can build and defend a scientific rationale, communicate across disciplines, and make decisions under uncertainty Bonus Points You have experience with AI-driven drug discovery or computational drug design tools You have experience managing CRO relationships for synthesis and biological testing You have experience across multiple therapeutic areas or modalities, including small molecules and peptides You have a track record of advancing compounds into preclinical or clinical development You have programming skills in Python, with the ability to work with data analysis tools and model outputs hands-on You have publications at top-tier venues or relevant drug discovery and medicinal chemistry journals

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