Senior Computational Biologist, Imaging

The Opportunity

Imaging-based phenotyping of in vitro biology is at the heart of insitro's efforts to accelerate drug development. Computational biology is key to elucidating the relationship between these image-derived phenotypes and human disease and translating them into actionable outcomes.

We are looking for a computational biologist with expertise in microscopy data, including a deep understanding of cell and disease biology and fluency with state-of-the-art analysis techniques. Your expertise will help the team navigate the complexities of developing disease-relevant cell models and analyzing high-throughput phenotypic screens, ensure that the tools being developed are statistically calibrated and effective, that analyses are performed to the highest rigor, and following best practices in the broader scientific community.

In this role, you will collaborate closely with experimental biologists and machine learning scientists to help identify novel phenotypes, develop new screening paradigms, and improve our understanding of disease. You will use machine learning, statistical, and bioinformatics methods to process and analyze diverse microscopy modalities as well as other modalities, such as transcriptomics and human cohort data, in order to extract insights about disease mechanisms.

You will be part of a cross-functional team of life scientists, data scientists, bioengineers, software engineers, and machine learning scientists that strive to identify therapeutic targets and develop drugs of high efficacy and low toxicity. This role will be reporting to the Head of Computational Biology and ML-Omics . This is a hybrid position that requires you to be in our South San Francisco headquarters at least three days per week
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You will be joining a vibrant biotech startup that has many opportunities for significant impact. You will work closely with a highly talented team, learn a broad range of skills, and help shape insitro's culture, strategic direction, and outcomes. Join us, and help make a difference to patients!

• Analyze image-derived features extracted from microscopy datasets from disease-relevant in vitro models to identify potential therapeutic targets from perturbation screens

• Partner with experimental biologists to design, troubleshoot, and optimize high-throughput imaging-based experiments and workflows

• Synthesize insights from multimodal analyses (microscopy, spatial proteomics, bulk/single-cell RNA-seq, human cohort data) to uncover disease mechanisms and generate therapeutic hypotheses

• Calibrate analysis tools and workflows, define performance metrics, and conduct benchmarking to select fit-for-purpose solutions

• Provide domain expertise in cell biology to guide assay development and biological interpretation of image-derived phenotypes

• Communicate findings to cross-functional stakeholders through reports, visualizations, presentations, and publications

• Identify novel disease-relevant phenotypes and propose new screening paradigms that translate to actionable program decisions

• Contribute to therapeutic target identification by linking phenotypic readouts with genetic and omics signals

• Ph.D. in computational biology, systems biology, bioengineering, machine learning, or a related discipline, with 3+ years of working experience post graduation

• Hands‑on experience working with microscopy data, preferably fluorescence and label‑free microscopy

• An understanding of molecular biology or disease biology (e.g. neurological disorders, metabolic disorders)

• Experience with spatial proteomics or transcriptomics

• Strong programming skills and proficiency with Python scientific packages (i.e., numpy, pandas)

• Ability to communicate effectively and collaborate with people of diverse backgrounds and job functions

• Committed to writing well‑commented code and documentation, and familiar with coding best practices (i.e. version control, code review)

• Publication record of meaningful contributions to high‑quality work in relevant computational biology, systems biology, life sciences, or biomedical venues

Our target starting salary for successful US‑based…