Head of Translational Medicine – AI & Biotechnology

This is a rare opportunity for an experienced physician to shape how frontier AI systems are evaluated across biology, drug development and medicine. You will combine clinical judgement with emerging AI capabilities, defining whether model outputs are genuinely useful to treating physicians, clinical investigators and regulators.

About the company

Our client is a well-capitalised biotechnology company developing AI agents and scientific benchmarks for biological research.

Its technology is already used by thousands of scientists, while leading AI organisations use its benchmarks to evaluate biological and medical reasoning. By grounding these benchmarks in real scientific and clinical work, the company aims to help AI systems interpret data, design experiments and support the advancement of therapeutics through clinical development.

The company is growing from its San Francisco base and is backed by highly regarded technology and life sciences investors.

The role

As Member of Technical Staff – Translational Medicine, you will lead the clinical side of the company’s benchmark development. You will determine how real clinical programmes can be translated into measurable tasks and decide whether an AI model’s answer is correct in the context that matters to physicians, investigators and regulators.

This is a full-time position based five days a week at the company’s waterfront San Francisco office. It is not a hybrid or remote role.

Responsibilities

• Defining and owning translational endpoints across therapeutics and disease benchmarks.
• Turning real drug programmes and clinical trial designs into tasks against which AI agents can be evaluated.
• Acting as the clinical authority across omics, therapeutics and biosecurity initiatives.
• Reviewing and defending clinical claims, endpoint decisions and benchmark outputs.
• Establishing data partnerships with health systems, academic centres, patient organisations and biotechnology companies.
• Developing appropriate consent, de-identification, compliance and review processes for sensitive clinical data.
• Negotiating and progressing data-use agreements.
• Building the clinical function, initially through advisors and subsequently by hiring a wider team.

About you

• You will be an MD who has completed residency and has served as a physician or named investigator on at least one Phase I, II or III clinical trial.
• You should have personally defined or defended clinical endpoints and be able to discuss a drug programme in detail, including its mechanism of action, patient population, dose rationale, safety profile, endpoint selection and regulatory feedback.
• Experience authoring FDA regulatory documents, such as INDs, clinical trial protocols, investigator brochures, BLA/sBLA filings or medical device authorisations—is essential.
• Experience in oncology, solid tumours, rare disease or gene therapy would be particularly valuable. Familiarity with clinical data partnerships, HIPAA, GDPR, IRB review or controlled-access datasets would also be advantageous.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation
• Meaningful long-term equity incentives.
• Employer 401(k) contributions.
• Comprehensive health cover with premiums fully paid, no deductible and no out-of-pocket costs.
• Daily lunch and dinner, plus funded travel to relevant conferences and networking events.

Recruitment process

One interview will involve a detailed discussion of a drug programme you know well. You should be prepared to explain the clinical strategy, trial design, endpoints, regulatory feedback and your personal contribution.

Your consultant

Aspire Life Sciences is a specialist search partner to ambitious companies operating at the intersection of life sciences and technology. To apply or arrange a confidential discussion, contact James Trott, Founder of Aspire Life Sciences.