Senior Research Scientist, Catalyst Discovery

About SandboxAQ

SandboxAQ is a high-growth company delivering AI solutions that address some of the world's greatest challenges. The company’s Large Quantitative Models (LQMs) power advances in life sciences, financial services, navigation, cybersecurity, and other sectors.

We are a global team that is tech-focused and includes experts in AI, chemistry, cybersecurity, physics, mathematics, medicine, engineering, and other specialties. The company emerged from Alphabet Inc. as an independent, growth capital-backed company in 2022, funded by leading investors and supported by a braintrust of industry leaders.

At SandboxAQ, we’ve cultivated an environment that encourages creativity, collaboration, and impact. By investing deeply in our people, we’re building a thriving, global workforce poised to tackle the world's epic challenges. Join us to advance your career in pursuit of an inspiring mission, in a community of like-minded people who value entrepreneurialism, ownership, and transformative impact.

The Opportunity

You will join a dedicated group of subject matter experts, computational scientists, and ML experts focused on solving real-world challenges in the chemical and energy sectors. Our team leverages an ensemble of proprietary computational tools to revolutionize heterogeneous catalyst discovery and optimization for our industrial partners.

The AI Simulation Team is looking for a Senior Research Scientist, Catalyst Discovery to join our team. This role is central to our efforts to: lead client engagements and deploy state-of-the-art computational workflows to discover and optimize novel heterogeneous catalyst materials.

This Person Will Achieve The Following Goals

• Lead high-impact client engagements focused on the discovery of novel catalyst materials, bridging the gap between proprietary simulations and industrial needs.
• Deploy multiscale computational workflows to simulate reactivity and dynamics across atomic, mesoscale, and continuum scales.
• Support commercial growth by providing technical diligence and proposal development for pre-sales customer engagements.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead Project & Client Engagements: Direct technical collaborations with industrial partners to optimize heterogeneous catalysts, serving as the primary lead for project delivery and research findings.
• Execute Technical Innovation: Deploy proprietary workflows to simulate catalytic materials and collaborate with engineering teams to improve the efficiency of discovery platforms.
• Support Business Development: Assist business functions with technical diligence, feasibility assessments, and proposal development for high-value pre-sales engagements.
• Communicate & Publish: Prepare high-impact reports and presentations for internal and external stakeholders, maintaining a presence in the academic and industry community through publications.
• Mentor & Champion Best Practices: Provide guidance and mentorship to junior scientists and interns in catalysis and reaction engineering, ensuring the highest standards of research.

Essential Skills & Experience

• PhD in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, or an equivalent discipline (or equivalent practical experience).
• 3+ years of industrial R&D experience specifically in heterogeneous catalysis and/or reaction engineering.
• Microkinetic Modeling: Direct experience developing and utilizing microkinetic models in collaboration with lab experiments for catalyst design.
• Computational Familiarity: Familiarity with modern atomistic simulation methods for catalyst discovery (via direct use or close collaboration).
• Technical Communication: A strong publication record demonstrating interdisciplinary collaboration and the ability to adapt to new methodologies.
• Programming: Basic programming skills, including familiarity with Python.

Highly Desired Skills & Experience

• DFT Expertise: Proven experience supporting experimental groups with DFT-based atomistic simulations for catalyst discovery.
• Experimental Familiarity: Hands-on experience or familiarity with experimental methods (synthesis, testing, and characterization).
• Advanced Python/HPC: Advanced software development skills in a High-Performance Computing (HPC) environment for materials analysis.
• AI/ML Integration: Specific familiarity with recent developments in machine-learned force fields for materials discovery.
• Mobility: Willingness to travel occasionally for in-person meetings with industrial partners.

Why Join Us?

We offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package designed to support your health, financial well-being, and life outside of work.

Compensation: Competitive base salary, performance-based incentives or bonuses (where applicable), and equity participation.Benefits: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents with generous employer premium contributions, retirement savings with company matching, paid parental leave, and inclusive family-building benefits.Work-Life Balance: Flexible paid time off, company-wide seasonal breaks, and support for flexible work arrangements that enable sustainable performance.

Career Development: Opportunities for continuous learning and growth through on-the-job development, cross-functional collaboration, and access to internal learning and development programs.

SandboxAQ Welcomes All

We are committed to fostering a culture of belonging and respect, where diverse perspectives are actively sought and valued. Our multidisciplinary environment provides ample opportunity for continuous growth - working alongside humble, empowered, and ambitious colleagues ready to tackle epic challenges.

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or Veteran status.

Accommodations: We provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities in job application procedures for open roles. If you need such an accommodation, please let a member of our Recruiting team know.

Key skills/competency

• Heterogeneous Catalysis
• Microkinetic Modeling
• Atomistic Simulation
• Python Programming
• Reaction Engineering
• DFT (Density Functional Theory)
• High-Performance Computing (HPC)
• AI/ML in Materials Discovery
• Client Engagement
• Technical Diligence