---
title: 'Building the Experimental Engine for Models of Life at Inceptive'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/building-the-experimental-engine-for-models-of-life-inceptive-palo-alto-s2n4k82x0ck8'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Building the Experimental Engine for Models of Life at Inceptive

- **Company:** Inceptive
- **Location:** Palo Alto, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-08-13
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/inceptive/jobs/5211454007

## Job description

Inceptive builds foundation models of life to enable medicines otherwise out of reach. We are seeking an exceptional scientific leader to build the experimental engine that trains, tests, and improves models that design medicines.

You will integrate molecular and cellular biology, functional genomics, screening, automation, and therapeutic development into a coherent experimental platform. Working closely with ML and translational biology experts, you will design and pioneer experiments to most effectively expand our models’ understanding of life and ability to design better medicines. This is a role for a scientific builder: someone who can identify transformative experimental opportunities, rapidly onboard and, where necessary, invent the required technologies, and assemble outstanding teams to turn ambitious ideas into scalable systems.

## Responsibilities

- Define experimental strategy to close gaps in model understanding and therapeutic design performance
- Design experiments specifically to train and evaluate generative and predictive models, in close collaboration with biologists and ML experts
- Generate high-quality, model-ready data using scalable methods such as functional genomics, high-throughput screening, multi-omics, and phenotypic profiling
- Integrate assay development, automation, data generation, analysis, and interpretation in a fast-paced, collaborative environment
- Recruit and lead a multidisciplinary team of experimental scientists and technology builders

## Qualifications

- An outstanding record of innovation in highly scalable biological assays that advance the state-of-the-art in therapeutic discovery, molecular design, or functional genomics
- Deep understanding of how experimental design, measurement quality, and biological context determine what models can learn from data
- Excellent communication across discipline boundaries, including fluency in analyzing and visualizing complex biological data
- Availability to work with team members across US and Europe, with meetings starting at 7am PT
- Readiness to travel several times a year for company retreats and business events
- We value in-person collaboration and expect candidates to work at our lab location

## Preferred experience

- Leadership of a research team of 10+ scientists
- Hands-on experience in mammalian cell engineering, RNA biology, and biochemistry
- Hands-on experience using laboratory automation to scale up data generation
- Development of data-rich in vivo assays, eg, incorporating pooled libraries, single-cell analysis, or spatial profiling

## Compensation

$221K – $305K + Bonus + Equity

## What we offer

- A competitive compensation package
- 30 days paid vacation per year
- Comprehensive health insurance for US based Beginners
- 401K with company match for US based Beginners and Direktversicherung for German Beginners
- Quarterly company-wide retreats
- Monthly wellness benefit
- Budget for multiple visits per year to our offices in Berlin, Palo Alto or Switzerland
- Learning & Development budget to attend conferences, take courses, or otherwise invest in your professional growth
- A buddy to help you get settled

*Varies by country and does not apply to internships

At Inceptive, we are creating tools to develop increasingly powerful biological software for the rational design of novel, broadly accessible medicines and biotechnologies previously out of reach. Our team brings together vast expertise in molecular biology, machine learning, and software engineering, and we are all working towards becoming antedisciplinary, meaning we deepen the knowledge we have in our area of expertise while also expanding our knowledge of completely new fields.

We approach our goals with a Beginner's mind, humbly and with fresh eyes, and aim to become the pioneers of a new discipline rooted in biology as much as in deep learning, whose impact will be realized together with out-of-the-box thinkers in business and entrepreneurship, defying established categorizations. We are building a company culture centered around growth, learning, and discovery. We believe in humility and open-mindedness in how we approach each other, as well as problems we don't yet have solutions for.

It is the policy of Inceptive to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital status, citizenship, national origin, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. Inceptive prohibits any such discrimination or harassment.

Inceptive is also committed to welcoming and providing accommodations to people with disabilities. Please let us know if you need any accommodations throughout your application process.

## About Inceptive

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Inceptive builds end-to-end foundation models that learn to design sequence-based medicines (e.g., mRNA, siRNA, ASOs, peptides) by training on diverse observations of life.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Not publicly available (company is "founded by AI and biochemistry pioneers")

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Biotechnology / Artificial Intelligence for drug discovery
- **Target customers**: B2B – pharmaceutical and biotech partners (e.g., Alnylam Pharmaceuticals)
- **Mission statement**: "To positively impact everyone through biological software" – from the careers page.

## Products & Services
- **Foundation Models for Drug Design**: A suite of deep learning models trained on heterogeneous data (sequence, function, structure) to generate novel therapeutic molecules. The models are designed to extrapolate beyond known molecules, yielding superior drug candidates.
- **Wet Lab Validation**: In-house experimental lab that rapidly ranks models and validates designs in vitro and in vivo, closing the in silico-to-biology loop.
- **Partnership Platform**: Co-designs novel medicines with leading drugmakers, providing custom models, data generation, and knowledge transfer.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding raised – **$120M** (latest Series A of $100M, closed approximately 2023) [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/inceptive)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz, NVentures, Artis Ventures, Section 32, Obvious Ventures [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/inceptive); Strategic collaboration with **Alnylam Pharmaceuticals** (up to $2B total, with $30M upfront including equity) [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/inceptive)
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - June 2026: Alnylam partnership valued up to $2B, significantly boosting Inceptive’s credibility and pipeline access.
  - Headcount *conflicting reports*: 21 employees per CB Insights, 40 per PitchBook – both recently cited; fast-growing team with offices in Palo Alto, Berlin, and Zurich [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/inceptive) [pitchbook.com](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/495561-34)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Antedisciplinary culture**: No titles; everyone is a "Beginner" – cross-training across biology, AI, and engineering to break silos.
- **Wet + Dry integration**: Rapid iterative cycles between computational design and experimental validation, reducing time from idea to drug candidate.
- **Model generalizability**: Trains on massive heterogeneous data (public, in-house, partner) to generalize across programs, unlike structure-only approaches.
- **Extrapolation ability**: Proprietary algorithms designed to iteratively improve molecules beyond the best seen in training data.

## Strategic Focus
- **Current priorities**: Scaling experiments for AI-designed medicines, advancing commercial strategy, and expanding partnerships (e.g., Alnylam) to bring more candidates to the clinic.
- **Geographic expansion**: Building teams across Palo Alto, Berlin, and Zurich.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: "Beginners only" – humble, curiosity-driven environment where everyone learns from each other. No formal titles, emphasizing collaboration over hierarchy.
- **Work model**: Hybrid/office presence expected at one of three hubs (Palo Alto, Berlin, Zurich); roles range from AI research to wet-lab science.
- **Notable perks**: Work on "the beach" where wet and dry science meet; direct impact on designing real medicines.
- **Engineering culture**: Strong emphasis on deep learning, high-throughput data generation, and continuous in silico/in vitro cycles.

## Sources
1. [inceptive.com](https://inceptive.com/)
2. [job-boards.greenhouse.io/inceptive](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/inceptive)
3. [cbinsights.com - Inceptive profile](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/inceptive)
4. [pitchbook.com - Inceptive profile](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/495561-34)

## Other roles at Inceptive

- [Data selection and quality evaluation for biological foundation models](https://feeny.ai/job/data-selection-and-quality-evaluation-for-biological-foundation-models-z1cpt3r5mnr4) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Computational design of biological experiments for model development](https://feeny.ai/job/computational-design-of-biological-experiments-for-model-development-inceptive-fqhxd5ef2mgb) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Secure Data Infrastructure for AI](https://feeny.ai/job/secure-data-infrastructure-for-ai-inceptive-berlin-j1j4rq3d43w8) — Berlin, Germany
- [Accelerating impact through partnerships](https://feeny.ai/job/accelerating-impact-through-partnerships-inceptive-palo-alto-etf7nd47r14a) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Leading Data-Driven Lab for AI Medicines](https://feeny.ai/job/leading-data-driven-lab-for-ai-medicines-inceptive-palo-alto-wnh3f1anxnq2) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Foundation and generative models for biomolecules](https://feeny.ai/job/foundation-and-generative-models-for-biomolecules-inceptive-berlin-germany-or-hb7a3f5z7rea) — Berlin Germany OR Palo Alto CA OR Zurich, Switzerland
- [High-throughput data generation to advance ML design](https://feeny.ai/job/high-throughput-data-generation-to-advance-ml-design-inceptive-palo-alto-7qeq4fb84hgq) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Advancing Inceptive's commercial strategy](https://feeny.ai/job/advancing-inceptive-s-commercial-strategy-inceptive-palo-alto-s2v5zv9xftke) — Palo Alto, CA
- [Open Apply](https://feeny.ai/job/open-apply-inceptive-palo-alto-k5b609n7v26m) — Palo Alto, CA / Berlin, Germany / Zurich, Switzerland