Computational Biologist, Immune Perturbation

The Team

Our decoding inflammation team builds tools to enable precise molecular-level measurements of inflammation within human tissues in real time, and develop proactive, early interventions that can be deployed when inflammation — which underlies the most significant causes of death worldwide — first flares in the body. You can learn more about our work here. 

Our team collaborates with three powerhouse universities - Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign - to develop first-in-class technologies and make breakthroughs.

Our Vision

• Pursue large scientific challenges that cannot be pursued in conventional environments
• Enable individual investigators to pursue their riskiest and most innovative ideas
• Facilitate research by scientists and clinicians at our home institutions and beyond

We are a team of passionate individuals powered by technology, guided by scientific research, and driven by collaboration, working toward a mission to cure or prevent all disease.

The Opportunity

Biohub is seeking a Computational Biologist to join our interdisciplinary AI/ML team within the Virtual Immune System initiative. This is a hands-on research role focused on building and evaluating lab-in-the-loop experimental systems and closing the cycle between computational models of immune cell behavior and wet-lab validation. The ideal candidate brings strong biological intuition, computational rigor, and experience applying machine learning to genomics or perturbation biology.

You will work at the intersection of foundation models, reasoning systems, and experimental immunology — developing frameworks for how these tools can be integrated into experimental workflows. This means defining what questions are addressable, designing experiments that stress-test model predictions, guiding analysis, and evaluating performance across the loop. The environment is highly collaborative and interdisciplinary, spanning immunology, automation engineering, and machine learning, with direct applications to human health and disease.

What You'll Do

• Design computationally-guided experiments leveraging reasoning models, foundation models, and automated lab infrastructure to address open questions in immunology and inflammation.
• Partner with experimental scientists, automation engineers, and AI/ML researchers to define addressable biological questions, close the loop between model predictions and wet-lab validation, and iterate on experimental strategy.
• Develop and document best practices for designing experimental workflows, including data acquisition strategy, analysis pipelines, and frameworks for iterative refinement across the loop.
• Critically evaluate model predictions by stress-testing outputs against external datasets, known biology, and expert intuition — identifying failure modes and feeding improvements back into model development.
• Contribute to publications, open-source tools, and translational applications that advance the field of computationally driven immune system modeling.

What You'll Bring

• PhD in Immunology, Computer Science/Statistics, Computational Biology/Genomics, or a related field.
• 3 to 5 years of experience of applying machine learning and computational approaches to biological problems, particularly in genomics or genetic perturbation screening (e.g., CRISPR-based screens, Perturb-seq).
• Hands-on experience with foundation models, LLMs, or reasoning models and a drive to rigorously evaluate where they do and don't work when applied to biological questions.
• Strong biological intuition and a clear scientific point of view — able to identify which questions are tractable, design experiments that test model predictions, and know when results don't pass the smell test.
• Strong programming and data skills (Python preferred), with an emphasis on reproducibility and clear documentation.
• Effective cross-domain communicator with experience working alongside experimentalists, engineers, or other non-computational collaborators to translate between domains and validate computational predictions.

Compensation

The Chicago, IL base pay range for a new hire in this role is $162,000.00 - $202,000.00. New hires are typically hired into the lower portion of the range, enabling employee growth in the range over time. Actual placement in range is based on job-related skills and experience, as evaluated throughout the interview process. 

This position may be eligible to participate in Biohub's discretionary annual performance bonus program. Bonus eligibility and targets are determined in accordance with Biohub's total rewards philosophy and may vary by role.

Benefits for the Whole You 

We’re thankful to have an incredible team behind our work. To honor their commitment, we offer a wide range of benefits to support the people who make all we do possible. 

• Provides a generous employer match on employee 401(k) contributions to support planning for the future.
• Paid time off to volunteer at an organization of your choice. 
• Funding for select family-forming benefits. 
• Relocation support for employees who need assistance moving

If you’re interested in a role but your previous experience doesn’t perfectly align with each qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply as you may be the perfect fit for this or another role.

#LI-Onsite