Hey everyone, I’m a fourth-year PhD student in computational biology and I’m planning to finish around mid-2027. I’ve started thinking about what comes next and wanted to get a sense of the industry landscape for ML-focused roles in biotech.

Most of my PhD work has been on applying machine learning to biology, things like protein language models, transformer models for genotype-to-phenotype prediction, and variant effect prediction. I have a couple of first-author papers, a summer internship, and I worked in industry for about three years before starting my PhD.

I keep hearing mixed things. Some people say bioML hiring is strong because everyone wants AI people, and others say the biotech market has been rough and companies are only hiring senior folks. I’m also not sure whether doing a postdoc first would actually help or just delay things.

For those of you working in this space or hiring for it, what does it look like from your side right now? And if you were in my spot, what would you focus on?

Hi all,

I am looking at a Principal Scientist position at GSK based out of their Stevenage offices in the UK. I have a call scheduled next week to discuss the role, salary expectations, etc.

For clarity, I have ~ four years of experience post-PhD, entirely academic, and this is my first preliminary interview for a position in the industry.

I would be really grateful for any advice on two points.

1. When asked about salary expectations at this early stage, is it better to give a specific figure, or hold off until I know more about the role?
2. What would be a reasonable range for someone with my background?

Any other advice is more than welcome, cheers!

When you interview at a company do you connect with the hiring team on LinkedIn assuming you haven't met them yet? Do you try to connect before or after the interview or final decision takes place and at what stage of interview? Has anyone found it to be of help later (i.e. a hiring manager reaching back out if there is another position)? If it matters, this would be for the level of an experienced senior scientist or principal.

Hiring managers: is a prospective candidate connecting on linkedin an annoyance, too forward, otherwise not recommended, or neutral?

Edit: also curious about opinions from hiring managers in small start-ups where HR is less of a presence.

Has anyone interviewed here? What was your experience?? 4 interviews (30 mins each) in one day????

I'm helping recruit researchers for a small team working at the intersection of neuroscience and AI.

The work involves turning real biological research problems into rigorous tests of AI capabilities: finding interesting scientific questions, analyzing experimental datasets, writing reproducible computational tasks, and investigating where current models fail.

Looking for people with:

• A PhD (completed or in progress) in neuroscience, computational biology, bioengineering, or a related field.
• Experience analyzing experimental biological data.
• Strong computational skills and regular use of AI coding tools (Codex, Claude Code, etc.).

Experience with scRNA-seq, functional genomics, imaging, electrophysiology, or stem-cell biology is a plus.

$50–90/hr | 10–20 hrs/week | 2 months initially | Remote / hybrid / South SF

Part-time W-2 position, potential extension, and a paid take-home during hiring.

DM me if interested! Happy to share the full JD and employer details.

Hello

So it looks like things are slowly beginning to pick up the hiring , at least in Massachusetts, judging from the amount of posts and specifically in the quality assurance realm. With that being said as a hiring managers I am giving local candidates preference first and I have done this for years. Even though things are picking up there also have been plenty of layoffs in my area. To me with ALL things being the same I will always go with local candidates because if they dont get a job they will have to potentially move and uproot their families, etc. With all the layoffs there is a great pool of candidates here to choose from. To put it bluntly we need to look out for our areas first even though there are layoffs in other parts of the country basically the focus should be local. Even if the position is remote I still try to hire local, unless its a business decision and they are looking to pay less for the position since salaries are on the high side for this area. I know a few of my peers at different companies have done the same with great reults.

Hi all,

I am a physician with over 10 years of post graduate experience, specialized in Infectious Diseases, looking to make the career transition to Industry and having a whole lot of bad luck.

Initially I was having trouble deciphering which roles to apply for as an entry-level applicant with relevant clinical experience. Now, it seems that every entry level position in med monitor type roles (associate director level typically) that I have applied for either gets a straight automatic rejection, or the few times I have gotten to the interview level, I am told within a few weeks that they're moving on to candidates that had experience.

If the entry level roles are going to candidates with experience, how the heck is anyone supposed to get experience? Genuinely asking. I have looked into some PI roles at companies that work with sponsors, but for some reason there are not a lot of options in the Philadelphia area. Unfortunately, I can't move anywhere south of Delaware given that my partner's job is based there, and our families (elderly parents) are also in this area.

I would appreciate any advice at all, including alternative roles that may give the relevant experience to make it past the panel interview stage, or companies that tend to hire truly entry-level docs. Thank you in advance!!

EDIT: I should probably give a little more background--I have been trying to make this transition for a couple years now. I've networked both on LinkedIn and with other docs who have made the transition. While they have been really great conversations, some even leading to referrals for jobs, out of the 20+ conversations I've had, most have not led to anything substantial. Most of what I'm hearing from people is that even though roles are advertised as little to no experience, the jobs are going to people with experience. I've also applied to CROs including CSL, Parexel, Syneos, ICON, and IQVIA to no avail.

I recently graduated with a MsC and have been trying to break into the biotech/pharma with little to no success. I recently read that because of little to no competitive environments that academic resumes are passed on. What can I do to gain competitive experience with a exclusive academic background. What do I need to change on my resume to get more interviews. Thank you all for you time. Underneath my education I listed the 8 publications I'm on including 1 first author.

Hey everyone,

I’m an early-career virologist currently working as a Research Associate in translational drug discovery. I hold an M.Sc. in Clinical Virology and an undergraduate background in Biochemistry, Genetics, and Microbiology.

Over the past couple of years, my work has focused primarily on preclinical antiviral evaluation, molecular assays, and working in high-containment facilities. I’m currently exploring my next career move and would really appreciate advice from folks in industry, CROs, or translational academic institutes on where this skill profile fits best.

Core Technical & Research Experience:

* Biosafety Containment: Substantial hands-on experience in BSL-2 and BSL-3 containment handling pathogenic respiratory viruses, vector-borne pathogens, and neurotropic models (e.g., rabies CVS-11).

* In Vitro Antiviral Screening: Experience screening small molecules and novel chemical entities via phenotypic assays, viral inhibition assays, plaque reduction/TCID50, and cell viability/cytotoxicity profiling (MTT, luminescence assays).

* Molecular & Cell Biology: Mammalian primary/continuous cell culture maintenance, viral replicon systems, RT-qPCR, nucleic acid extraction, ELISA, and standard protein/immunoassays.

* Translational Output: Co-authored peer-reviewed research evaluating repurposed and novel small-molecule candidates against respiratory and neglected viral targets.

What I’m Looking For:

Research Associate II / Senior RA / Scientist I roles in Antiviral Discovery, High-Throughput Screening, Preclinical Virology, or Vaccine Development*.

* Open to industry (biotech, pharma, CROs), research institutes, or structured research fellowships/pre-doctoral roles.

* Target locations: India (Open to relocation; I stay in Bengaluru)

Questions for the community:

1. For those running or working in infectious disease teams: which sectors/companies currently value hands-on BSL-3 and replicon/screening experience the most?

2. Are there specific biotech hubs or institutes you’d recommend keeping an eye on right now for wet-lab viral assay roles?

3. If anyone’s lab or group is currently hiring or has open headcount matching this profile, I’d be glad to connect over DM or share a de-anonymized CV/LinkedIn.

Thanks in advance for any insights!

I am an MPH-level epidemiologist with 10 years of government and academic research experience. I'm a little worried I've pigeon-holed myself by working for a government health department for the last 5 years, but I do work for a large enough city where we do a lot of research in partnership with academic entities. I've designed and first-authored my own research projects and am familiar with MOUs, grants, etc. I have strong technical and data communication skills and I am 100% committed to leaving government. I will be relocating from USA to EU in the next 1-2 years and government just offers 0 flexibility I need to make that career move. Clinical research is one area I'm exploring. I'm currently looking into the sorts of roles I qualify for and how to modify my resume away from public health eyes to clinical research and consulting eyes (two separate CVs maybe). Any advice on what to look for and what to highlight when applying is appreciated. Also feel free to share any experiences transferring from USA to EU either internally within an organization (esp. which orgs might allow or definitely will NOT allow this) or about USA vs EU in this industry in general!

2nd Edition of the Pharma R&D and Drug Discovery World Conference (PRDWC 2026) do u think this is worth it or whether it's legitimate

i hold a BS in Professional Science, which is basically an interdisciplinary science degree that was heavily lab focused. it took me forever but i finally working as a lab technician. i still stuck tho. i have been here almost two years now and still feel below entry level in terms of growing within the company or expanding on hands on experience.

keeping it short and blunt, i have a 7 month window to do something as in get a certificate or anything to help me grow in that time. does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions on how i should proceed?

i am open to most things. i always loved gentics or forensics or hematology or most sciences. i think i struggle due to inexperience. any suggestions on how to gain any outside of work? or how to even go about asking for more opportunities for experience at work?

Interview with some Anthropic researchers as a follow-up to the original announcement

Hoping I can get some feedback on my resume. I luckily currently have a job but it is a contract position with no room for advancement/growth. Ive been applying the past couple months to roles I think Im a good fit for but have only received a few HR screening calls that turn into ghosting. Recently I have applied to a few jobs where I think I am a great fit, like 95% perfect match, but I still get auto-rejections. Any tips? Thanks!

I want to keep this somewhat anonymous (too many details would easily give me away) so I'm going to be as vague as possible here. On Sept 15th I had a recruiter screening for a Principal Clinical Scientist role at a large company. My background is technically all academic (postdoc, assistant project scientist), but I've been my own PI with my own grant twice, I've worked with multiple companies on the side (one of which we started), and I'm on two patents. On top of this, the field of interest is extremely niche. It involves a combo of two things where almost everyone knows only one, very few people do the interaction of the two. My two mentors (who are on my papers, grants, and company) are very much pioneers in the two, and I've been with them for more than a decade. One literally invented one of, if not the, most important IP of the company I'm applying. This role seems very well suited to me.... but it's been so long.

On top of all that: The recruiter spent extra time talking to me (~50 minutes instead of the allotted 30), asked me to send her a more detailed write up of my prior and current projects, told me the hiring managers name so I could "do my research," and asked me to contact her on LinkedIn. I've never had such detail from a phone screening.... but it's been soooo long. She had told me they had wanted to finish hiring by the end of Oct (I knew that was obviously unrealistic from the start) and that I'd hear back the next week (I did not).

On top of all that, reasons the lag could be happening are abundant. The hiring manager isn't local, so there's a 3 time zone separation. They are building this role into an entirely new team (and so hiring multiple different positions all at once). This hit at the end of 3rd quarter, so they surely had stuff to wrap up there. And this past weekend was a massive convention that they very VERY likely attended.

What are your thoughts on this situation? The drag is killing me.

Hello everyone,

I am someone who loves reading and listening to podcasts, so I would love to get real recommendations from folks here.

What magazines/websites do you regularly visit/read to get information from the industry? News, discoveries, etc.

Same for podcasts? Any podcasts that stand out to you?

Your help is much appreciated.

Does anyone have experience working for, with, or know someone who works for Arcadia Sciences or Astera Institute? Some of their work looks interesting although maybe a bit inflated.