Senior AI/ML Systems Engineer

Location: Waltham, MA (Hybrid – minimum 3 days onsite)
Employment Type: Full-Time

The mRNA Center of Excellence represents a significant annual investment dedicated to accelerating the development of next-generation vaccines. With approximately 400 employees across the United States and Europe, the organization integrates end-to-end mRNA vaccine capabilities across Research & Development, Digital, and CMC functions.

Beyond pandemic preparedness, the team drives innovation in mRNA technologies with a focus on thermostability, tolerability, and routine vaccination applications. Advanced AI and machine-learning methodologies — including lipid nanoparticle prediction and mRNA sequence optimization — are embedded into research strategy to accelerate scientific decision-making and development timelines.

The Senior Systems Engineer – Production AI will join the mRNA Systems Engineering team to design, build, and operate production-grade AI and machine-learning systems that accelerate mRNA vaccine research and development.

This role operates at the intersection of software engineering, AI/ML, and pharmaceutical sciences in a highly agile, cross-functional environment. The ideal candidate will build scalable digital products that bring predictive models into production and empower scientific users across Vaccines R&D.

• Design, develop, deploy, and operate production-grade AI/ML systems and data pipelines

• Build, maintain, and optimize CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions for automated testing and deployment

• Deploy and operate containerized applications on Kubernetes using GitOps practices (e.g., ArgoCD)

• Develop user-facing applications via APIs and/or graphical interfaces

• Deploy predictive models into production environments with strong emphasis on reliability, scalability, and observability

• Build and optimize compute pipelines supporting data processing and model training

• Collaborate with data scientists, computational biologists, and vaccine researchers to translate scientific requirements into robust digital solutions

• Participate in agile ceremonies and contribute to continuous improvement initiatives

• Maintain high standards of code quality, documentation, and knowledge transfer

• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, or related field

• Minimum 5 years of professional software engineering experience

• Demonstrated delivery of production-level systems with measurable impact

• Strong experience in agile development environments

• Proven experience deploying and operating applications in production

• GitHub Actions and CI/CD pipeline implementation

• Kubernetes container orchestration

• GitOps practices (ArgoCD or similar)

• Strong Python programming skills

• API and/or web application development

• Production deployment of machine-learning models (MLOps experience)

• Familiarity with major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)

• Fluent English required

• French is a plus

• Experience in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or life sciences environments

• Knowledge of vaccine development, drug discovery, or experimental sciences

• Experience with workflow orchestration tools such as Metaflow

• Experience mentoring or providing technical training

• Contributions to open-source communities

• Experience designing scalable data engineering architectures

We value demonstrated impact, collaboration, and scientific curiosity. Depth of expertise and a proven delivery track record are prioritized over years of experience.

The ideal candidate is a strong collaborator who is comfortable working alongside scientific stakeholders and motivated to build impactful digital products that advance mRNA vaccine development.

• Contribute at the forefront of AI-enabled mRNA vaccine innovation

• Collaborate with world-class scientists and engineers

• Make a measurable impact on global public health

• Access state-of-the-art R&D facilities and digital platforms

• Work in a purpose-driven, highly collaborative environment

• Hybrid model: minimum three days per week onsite in Waltham, MA

• Agile, fast-paced team focused on rapid iteration and delivery

• Strong cross-functional collaboration across R&D, Digital, and CMC teams