Engineering Lead

About AQEMIA

AQEMIA is a drug invention company dedicated to creating entirely new medicines to address major unmet medical needs. At the core of our mission is QEMI , our proprietary molecule-invention platform, which uniquely combines cutting-edge science with advanced technology. Powered by physics-based modeling, statistical mechanics, and generative AI, QEMI allows our teams to design novel drug candidates from first principles.

What makes AQEMIA different is our commitment to true innovation: our research is dedicated to the invention of new molecular entities, not the refinement of existing ones. We focus on inventing never-before-seen molecules , without relying on experimental data, and advancing them into a growing pipeline of proprietary programs and strategic partnerships with leading pharmaceutical companies.

Our most advanced preclinical programs are currently in vivo optimization , targeting diseases still waiting for effective treatments, offering our teams the opportunity to work on science that can make a real difference in people’s lives.

For more information, visit AQEMIA.com , our WTTJ Page , and our LinkedIn .

About our Team

AQEMIA brings together a diverse, multidisciplinary team of 80+ professionals based in Paris and London. Our scientists and engineers, including chemists, physicists, machine learning experts, and software engineers, work side by side to push the boundaries of early-stage drug discovery.

This close collaboration across disciplines is central to our approach, enabling us to tackle complex scientific challenges from first principles and translate cutting-edge ideas into novel therapeutic candidates. At AQEMIA, team members are encouraged to contribute their expertise, learn from one another, and play an active role in shaping the future of drug invention.

About our Engineering Department

The Engineering team builds and scales the technical foundations that power Aqemia’s drug discovery engine.

Bringing together expertise across software engineering, cloud infrastructure, data engineering, site reliability engineering (SRE), and scientific computing, the team designs and operates robust, secure, and high-performance platforms that enable Aqemia’s scientific and AI teams to experiment, train, deploy, and run models at scale.

Their work spans data infrastructure, scientific compute systems, cloud operations, orchestration, observability, CI/CD, developer tooling, and platform scalability. By transforming cutting-edge research into reliable and scalable systems, the team accelerates the discovery of new medicines while ensuring operational excellence and an outstanding developer experience.

The role

As Engineering Lead for Compute, you'll lead the team of 4 software engineers who turn our scientists' research into production systems. Our physics and AI teams build simulations, ML models and workflows. Your team builds the backends that run them reliably and at scale, and orchestrates them efficiently.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You'll manage and grow the team, and you'll stay close to the code: reviewing it, shaping the architecture and shipping when it matters. You'll work closely with the scientists who use what you build, and you'll have direct exposure to senior leadership.

The team is part of a small engineering organisation of about 12 people. The team will grow, and you'll help hire for it.

Responsibilities

1. Lead and grow a high-performing Compute team

   • Coach and develop engineers through regular feedback and career development follow up.

   • Recruit, onboard and retain strong software engineering talent.

2. Enable Scientific and AI workloads at scale

   • Plan and execute the Compute team's roadmap.

   • Put in production scientific and AI R&D workflows.

   • Drive scalability, reliability and performance while managing technical debt.

3. Contribute to Engineering strategy

   • Strengthen collaboration across Compute, Platform, Data, AI, Scientific and Product teams.

   • Foster Engineering best practices across architecture, testing, observability and maintainability.

Qualifications

• Strong expertise in engineering (software, distributed systems and compute platforms)

• Academic background: Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Distributed Systems, Cloud Computing or a related field, or equivalent experience

• Year of experience : 6+ years in software engineering, including building and running production systems at scale

• A first experience in a people management role with direct reports (hiring, 1:1s, performance reviews, career development)

• Skills :

  • High level of ownership and autonomy

  • Ability to translate theory into practical impact

  • Strong communication skills with technical and non-technical stakeholders

  • Hands-on Python and modern backend development, still current (writes or reviews production code today)

  • Deploy and run production workloads on public cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes

  • Has owned a technical roadmap and coordinated execution across teams

  • Enjoys coaching, develops engineers and builds high-performing teams

  • Pragmatic about trade-offs between delivery, technical quality and company priorities

Nice‑to‑Have

• Experience in drug discovery / biotech / pharma / deeptech environments

Why Join Us ?

At AQEMIA, we work for a mission: joining us means having your own impact on changing the way drugs are discovered, and helping to shape the direction of our fast-growing company and team.

Expanding Drug Discovery Pipeline : Focused on critical therapeutic areas like Oncology, CNS, Immuno-inflammation... with in vivo proof of concept/patent stage programs. Collaborations with top Pharma, including a $140M Sanofi deal.

World-Class Interdisciplinary Team : work alongside exceptional talent at the intersection of technology and life sciences. Our teams combine deep expertise in AI, physics-based modeling, biology, and medicinal chemistry to push the boundaries of innovation.

DeepTech Recognition : AQEMIA is proud to be part of the French Tech 40 and France 2030 , highlighting our role as a key player in Europe’s DeepTech ecosystem.

Prime Location with Flexibility : Our offices are located in the heart of Paris and London (King’s Cross) , with flexible work arrangements including up to two remote days per week.

Strong Financial Backing : $100M raised from leading European and International investors

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.