Engineering Manager - Compute Team

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.

About our Team

AQEMIA brings together a diverse, multidisciplinary team of 80+ professionals based in Paris and London. Our scientists and engineers—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.

About our Engineering Department

The Engineering team (≈12 people) 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.

Engineering Manager, Compute

As Engineering Manager of the Compute team, you will lead a team of 5 engineers responsible for building and evolving the compute platform that powers AQEMIA’s scientific simulations, machine learning workloads, and large‑scale experimentation. You will combine strong engineering leadership with technical credibility to grow a high‑performing team while delivering reliable and scalable platform capabilities.

Lead and Grow the Compute Engineering Team

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Software Engineers through regular feedback, career development, and mentoring.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high‑performing engineering culture built on ownership, trust, and continuous improvement.
• Recruit, onboard, and retain exceptional engineering talent.
• Help engineers grow both technically and professionally while creating clear development paths.

Deliver Compute Platform Roadmap

• Partner with Product, Staff Engineers, and Engineering Leadership to define priorities and execute the Compute roadmap.
• Drive predictable delivery of platform initiatives supporting scientific computing, AI workloads, and internal developer platforms.
• Balance new capabilities, operational excellence, and technical debt reduction.
• Identify and proactively manage delivery risks, dependencies, and execution challenges.

Ensure Operational Excellence

• Drive high engineering standards across architecture, testing, observability, reliability, and maintainability.
• Improve the scalability, resilience, and performance of production systems supporting research and platform teams.
• Promote modern engineering practices including automation, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, and AI‑assisted software development.
• Continuously improve engineering processes, team effectiveness, and operational maturity.

Partner Across Engineering and Science

• Collaborate closely with Platform, Data, AI, and Scientific teams to translate research needs into scalable engineering solutions.
• Facilitate communication between technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Ensure engineering execution remains aligned with AQEMIA’s scientific objectives and business priorities.
• Support cross‑functional planning, architecture discussions, and technical decision‑making.

Contribute to Engineering Leadership

• Partner with Engineering Leadership on organizational planning, hiring strategy, and team evolution.
• Help define engineering standards, operating principles, and best practices across the organization.
• Contribute to long‑term platform strategy and engineering scalability.
• Foster knowledge sharing, technical excellence, and continuous learning across teams.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in Software Engineering, including building production systems at scale.
• Previous experience leading engineering teams as an Engineering Manager or Tech Lead with people‑management responsibilities.
• Strong experience delivering distributed systems, cloud‑native applications, or compute‑intensive platforms.
• Solid software engineering background with hands‑on experience in Python and modern backend development.
• Experience working with AWS, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, Snowflake, and modern cloud infrastructure.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, scalability, observability, and operational excellence.
• Experience leading roadmap execution and coordinating cross‑functional engineering initiatives.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence across engineering, scientific, and business stakeholders.
• Strong coaching mindset with a passion for developing engineers and building high‑performing teams.
• Pragmatic approach to balancing delivery, technical excellence, and organizational priorities.
• Experience leading Platform Engineering, Infrastructure, Compute, or SRE teams.
• Exposure to scientific computing, machine learning infrastructure, or AI platforms.
• Familiarity with large‑scale compute environments, GPU infrastructure, or distributed training systems.
• Experience with workflow orchestration systems and developer platforms.
• Experience implementing AI‑assisted engineering workflows and spec‑driven development practices.
• Track record of scaling engineering organizations in fast‑growing technology companies.
• Interest in computational chemistry, life sciences, or scientific research environments.

Why Join Us?

• Expanding Drug Discovery Pipeline – focused on critical therapeutic areas such as Oncology, CNS, and Immuno‑inflammation, with in‑vivo proof of concept and patent‑stage programs.
• World‑Class Interdisciplinary Team – work alongside talent at the intersection of AI, physics‑based modeling, biology, and medicinal chemistry.
• DeepTech Recognition – proud to be part of the French Tech 120 and France 2030 initiatives.
• Prime Location with Flexibility – offices in Paris and London (King’s Cross) with the ability to work remotely up to two days per week.
• Strong Financial Backing – $100 M raised from leading European and international investors.