Natural Language Processing (NLP) Intern

About Freenome 

Freenome is a high-growth biotech company on a mission since 2014 to create tools that empower everyone to prevent, detect, and treat their disease.  To achieve this mission, Freenome is developing next-generation blood tests to detect cancer in its earliest, most treatable stages using our multiomics platform and machine learning techniques. Our first blood test will detect early-stage colorectal cancer and advanced adenomas.

We are looking for an NLP intern to develop and research ML and DL models for information extraction from clinical text. The intern will work with machine learning scientists, machine learning engineers, and computational biologists to build end-to-end ML/DL models to extract phenotypes and insights from large EHR datasets. The ideal candidate will have strong domain knowledge and prior experience working on NLP applications, programming proficiency, and solid knowledge of machine learning methods.

Responsibilities:

• Research and investigate the latest technologies, then create and customize ML/DL models for information extraction, classification, sentiment analysis, text segmentation, topic modeling, etc from clinical text.
• Work with a diverse, cross-functional team to build reusable, scalable, and end-to-end NLP models that unlock information from unstructured data in EHRs.
• Collaborate with team members for code and design review.
• Communicate insights and present concepts to diverse audiences.
• Take a mindful, transparent, and thoughtful approach to your work and your interactions with others.

What We're Looking For:

• Work towards a BS, MS, PhD in a quantitative discipline (e.g., NLP, machine learning, statistics, biomedical informatics, computer science, applied mathematics, or similar), or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience and knowledge in NLP such as text classification, NER, sentiment analysis, relation extraction, word/sentence/doc embedding, etc;
• Experience in deep learning models (CNN, LSTM, XLNet, GPT, BERT, or other transformer-based models. Hands-on experience in developing and training models with large-scale text data;
• Experience with open-source ML / DL / NLP toolkits such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, CoreNLP, OpenNLP, StanfordNLP, SpaCy, AllenNLP, NLTK, gensim, etc.
• Experience with Python, Java or similar scripting languages
• Experience writing technical documentation
• The ability to thrive in an environment where collaboration, communication, and compromise are an expected part of your day-to-day work

Nice to have:

• Experience applying NLP to structured and unstructured EHR data.
• Prefer candidates with publications in top-tier venues such as ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, NeurIPS, ICLR, ICML, etc;
• Experience in frontier topics such as meta-learning, multitask learning, few shot learning is highly desirable;  
• Industry experience in machine learning applications in production is preferred;
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail. Strong mastery of Python or other programming languages, and general software development skills (source code management, debugging, testing, deployment, etc.);

COVID safety:

As a condition of employment, you agree to know and comply with our COVID-19 vaccination policy requiring all employees who work on-site and/or attend work-related events to be fully vaccinated and to receive a COVID-19 booster once eligible. Company employees working on-site are required to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and to receive a COVID-19 booster once eligible, unless a reasonable accommodation is approved or as otherwise required by law. Absent a reasonable accommodation or legal exception, you agree to provide proof of your vaccination status and to be fully vaccinated by your first day on-site, in accordance with our policy.  If you are currently eligible for a COVID-19 booster, you also agree to provide proof of having received a booster.  If you are not yet eligible for a COVID-19 booster, you must provide proof of receiving a booster within two weeks of becoming eligible.

Freenome is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity. Freenome does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.

Funding

We have raised more than $1.1B from leading investors including Perceptive Advisors, RA Capital Management, Roche Venture Fund, Kaiser Permanente, Novartis and the American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge Ventures. 

Freenomers

A ‘Freenomer’ is a mission-driven employee who is fueled by the opportunity to make a positive impact on patients' lives, who thrives in a culture of respect and cross collaboration, and whose work makes a significant impact on the company and their career. 

Freenomers are technical, creative, visionary, grounded, empathetic and passionate. We build teams around divergent expertise, allowing us to solve problems and ascertain opportunities in unique ways. Freenomers are some of the most talented experts in their fields, joining together to advance healthcare, one breakthrough at a time. 

Benefits include but are not limited to:

• Competitive compensation 
• Pre-IPO equity
• Flexible PTO (exempt) and generous PTO (non-exempt) 
• Comprehensive health coverage, including medical, dental, and vision 
• Wellness and mental health resources, including Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), Paid maternity and paternity leave
• 401(k) plan 
• $250.00 new hire stipend to enhance your home office experience
• Plus, a variety of other perks, including pre-tax commuter benefits, two paid volunteer days per year, pet insurance, and additional discounts 

Applicants have rights under Federal Employment Laws.  

• Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

• Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)

• Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)

Notice to agencies:

Our in-house Talent Acquisition Team manages all employment opportunities at Freenome.  Agencies and independent recruiters must be approved as a vendor by Freenome’s Talent Acquisition team before submitting candidates to any Freenome employee. 

We do not accept unsolicited resumes or biographies from agencies under any circumstances. Any unsolicited resumes sent to Freenome, including those sent to a Freenome email address or directly to Freenome employees, will be considered Freenome property. Freenome will NOT pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume. Freenome will consider any candidate for whom an Agency has submitted an unsolicited resume to have been referred by the Agency free of any charges or fees. 

Please do not contact Freenome employees directly. Compliance with this request will impact our decision to work with you.