Chief Scientific Officer

Role Details:
Chicago, IL / Remote | Part-Time (15–20 hours/week)
Anticipated Start: December 10, 2026
Potential Transition: Full-Time Executive Leadership
Compensation: Part-time compensation, with meaningful equity participation negotiable
About the Company:
BRAIV is an early-stage healthcare AI company on a mission to end trial-and-error prescribing in psychiatry.
Today, selecting psychiatric medications often involves months of trial and error, with patients cycling through treatments before finding one that works. We're building a clinical decision-support, precision psychiatry platform that brings together fragmented clinical information, real-world healthcare data, and machine learning to help clinicians make more informed, personalized treatment decisions.
Our scientific work spans foundational research, computational modeling, real-world clinical data analysis, and the development of predictive systems that can ultimately learn from treatment outcomes.
We are supported by a growing network of academic collaborators, clinicians, and researchers, with ongoing research involving the University of Chicago and collaborations across leading academic medical institutions.
About the role:
We are seeking a Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) to lead the execution of BRAIV's scientific and computational research initiatives.
Working closely with the Founder & CEO, you will translate BRAIV's overarching scientific vision into a rigorous, practical research strategy and executable roadmap.
This is a hands-on scientific leadership position. You'll guide a multidisciplinary team spanning theoretical research, clinical science, machine learning, and data science, while remaining actively involved in solving complex scientific and technical challenges.
The ideal candidate combines deep analytical expertise with strong scientific judgment, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to lead dynamic research in a fast-moving, resource-constrained startup environment.
Key Responsibilities:
Scientific Strategy & Research Execution
Translate BRAIV's scientific vision into actionable research programs, clear milestones, and measurable deliverables.
Establish and manage a scientific roadmap that balances long-term innovation with near-term technical and clinical feasibility.
Develop rigorous research methodologies, evaluate emerging scientific approaches, and prioritize the most promising avenues of investigation.
Oversee scientific validation, research documentation, and the preparation of manuscripts and publications.
Machine Learning & Healthcare Data Science
Lead research involving large, complex healthcare datasets, including longitudinal clinical and real-world patient data.
Guide the development and evaluation of predictive ML models, statistical analyses, and computational approaches to personalized treatment.
Contribute hands-on to research design, data analysis, experimentation, and model development as needed.
Ensure methodological rigor, reproducibility, interpretability, and scientific validity across computational research initiatives.
Multidisciplinary Scientific Leadership
Lead and mentor a distributed team of part-time scientists and researchers working across diverse scientific disciplines.
Coordinate research spanning foundational concepts and theoretical ontologies through applied machine learning, clinical data analysis, and translational research.
Provide structure, prioritization, and scientific oversight while preserving researchers' independence and creativity.
Help identify and recruit additional scientific talent as BRAIV's research capabilities expand.
Scientific Collaboration & External Engagement
Collaborate with clinical advisors, academic researchers, and institutional partners to advance scientific studies and validation efforts.
Support the development of research partnerships and prospective clinical investigations.
Represent BRAIV's scientific work in discussions with collaborators, strategic partners, and investors.
Help establish a strong, credible scientific foundation for BRAIV's long-term growth.
Qualifications:
Required / Strongly Preferred
Approximately 5–10 years of relevant experience in computational research, machine learning, data science, biomedical informatics, or a closely related discipline.
PhD strongly preferred in Computer Science, Biomedical Engineering, Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Statistics, or a related field. Exceptional candidates with equivalent research experience are encouraged to apply.
Demonstrated expertise analyzing complex, high-dimensional datasets using statistical and machine learning methods.
Experience designing, executing, and critically evaluating scientific research.
Proven ability to lead, mentor, and coordinate researchers across multiple disciplines and levels of experience.
Strong programming and analytical capabilities, particularly in Python and modern ML/data science frameworks.
Ability to operate independently, establish research priorities, and translate complex scientific ideas into executable projects.
Excellent scientific communication and collaborative leadership skills.
Highly Desirable
Experience working with electronic health records (EHRs), longitudinal clinical datasets, or real-world healthcare data.
Background in behavioral health, psychiatry, neuroscience, or psychopharmacology.
Experience with predictive modeling, clinical outcomes research, treatment-response modeling, or healthcare AI.
Familiarity with observational research methods, missing-data challenges, clinical data quality, and model interpretability.
Track record of peer-reviewed publications or leadership of substantial scientific research programs.
Experience working within interdisciplinary academic, translational research, or early-stage startup environments.
The Opportunity:
This is an opportunity to help shape the scientific foundations of a fast-moving healthcare AI company at a formative stage. You'll have meaningful influence over how BRAIV's scientific vision becomes reality, from the research questions we pursue and the methodologies we employ to the team we build and the clinical evidence we generate.
You'll work directly with the Founder & CEO, collaborate with researchers and clinicians across leading academic institutions, and help develop technology aimed at a consequential challenge in mental healthcare. We value scientific rigor, intellectual independence, practical execution, and the willingness to tackle difficult, unsolved problems.
Position Details:
Commitment: Approximately 15–20 hours per week initially.
Location: Remote or hybrid; Chicago-based candidates are slightly preferred but not required.
Start Date: Anticipated December 10, 2026.
Growth: Potential transition to a full-time CSO position as BRAIV scales.
Compensation: Paid part-time role, with compensation based on experience and commitment. Equity participation can be discussed separately.
Why Us:
We're looking for someone who is excited not simply to oversee research, but to build an enduring scientific organization and help turn ambitious ideas into clinically meaningful innovation.
If you're a computational scientist and emerging scientific leader who thrives at the intersection of rigorous research, machine learning, and real-world healthcare impact, we'd love to hear from you.

Work arrangement
Yes