I’ve been building Frontier AI (FAI) for the past 18 months now. Hiring at the frontier of AI and life science has been a gratifying learning experience. Everyone who is now part of FAI has been selected meticulously by me with help from my collaborators. Few weeks into hiring we quickly realized conventional ways of interview suck and are narrow-minded. Coding interviews can be gamed and “culture” round can be faked. Our interviews want to reveal the character of the person through the way they think and if FAI is the right place for them.

FAI’s mission is to translate AI potential into progress, to change how we do therapeutics discovery at Lilly. I would not have asked for a better group and I am proud of what we have built; but this role is not for everyone and it is better we decide on this sooner than later.

As we continue to hire, I wanted to share few things that I personally look at in the candidates:

  1. Passion. You don’t need to fit a cookie-cutter mold of computational chemistry or bioinformatics. When I came to Lilly I had never seen a protein structure before. I am looking for passion, a flame of genius that can be stoked. We are hiring for the thinking process than what you thought about. Explain me an idea you are passionate about simply. What are you learning in your free time at your own dime? It might be wood working. Embrace your funk.
  2. Relentlessly resourceful. It follows passion closely. People can be passionate but arm-chair philosophers. Are you going out of your comfort zone to bring about a change? How do you learn and incorporate feedback? The will to think, as Enrico Fermi once described.
  3. Zero intellectual insecurity. Not being afraid to look stupid. Ask simple seemingly dumb questions. Intelligence and energy are important to deliver, integrity determines your mileage. When were you wrong and willing to pivot? Further, it is also compulsive unwillingness to lie to yourself and as you are the easiest person to fool considering there is no external force to correct for that.
  4. AI. Creative use of AI is on-brand to what we are hiring for. Tailoring your slides and resume to the job description does not cut it.

Lead by example of your work. Ask good questions. A near perfect team is made up smart, passionate, imperfect people who complement each other. If these ideas and the mission moves you, please apply and I look forward to chatting soon!