Internship - Machine Learning

JobsCloseBy Editorial Insights

Novo Nordisk is offering a ten‑week onsite internship in Lexington, MA, from June 1 to August 14, 2026. The intern will help build a peptide and minibinder design platform powered by structure prediction, enhanced sampling, and reinforcement learning, with chances to add tree search and ML predictors, benchmark across systems, and aim for publication. Ideal candidates are students pursuing computer science, ML, or computational chemistry with a solid GPA, strong organizational skills, and the ability to work both collaboratively and independently. Compensation ranges from $52,000 to $89,000 hourly; visa sponsorship not offered. Tips: tailor your resume to the project scope, cite relevant coursework and projects, show initiative and a passion for drug discovery.

About the Department

Our Research & Development organization brings together the best minds in life science innovation. The teams located in facilities in Lexington, Watertown, Cambridge and Plainsboro reflect the full R&D continuum, from early research through late-stage clinical development. Here, we are building for the future, creating a distinct R&D community based on collaboration, partnerships, and cutting-edge research across multiple modalities and therapeutic areas. We recognize that improving human health starts here and that patients rely on us. Our R&D hub merges biotech speed and agility with large pharmaceutical company quality, resources, and stability, uniting the best of both worlds to develop new medicines for patients.

The Program

At Novo Nordisk, interns will have the opportunity to work closely with experienced industry professionals and gain valuable, hands-on, full-time work experience. For ten working weeks, interns will be immersed in the environment of a global pharmaceutical company and contribute to the line of business by providing sustainable and meaningful project work. Our internship program also includes instructor led trainings, a leadership engagement series, and a guided mentorship program to offer professional and personal development.

Program Start: June 1st, 2026

Program End: August 14th, 2026

Scope of Position

The intern will work on the development and implementation of novel in house peptide and minibinder design platform that is powered by SOTA structure prediction models and enhanced sampling methods. The objective of this project are manifold:

• Integrate other enhanced sampling that are currently not in the pipeline such as Monte Carlo tree search
• Integrate various machine learning property predictors into the pipeline
• Benchmark NovoBind on diverse systems and improve the pipelines scope
• Implement reinforcement learning to bias the generation of designs. This project has applicability across digital chemistry and design tasks (both de novo design and confidence maturation) and across modalities (including peptide, minibinder, and antibody discovery). The expected outcome is a product that is effective and accessible with broad acceptance within our drug discovery projects in addition lead to a publication.

The intern will learn about state of the art structure predictors and metric, computational sequence-based binder design, reinforcement learning, drug design with computational chemistry across a broad set of modalities at Novo Nordisk including peptides, minibinders, and antibodies.

Physical Requirements

0% overnight travel required.

Qualifications

• Must be a current student enrolled at an accredited college or university pursuing at least a bachelor’s degree
• An in progress doctoral degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Chemistry or a related discipline preferred
• Strong academic record with a preferred cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher
• Conscientious self-starter with good organizational skills, project management skills and attention to detail
• Ability to balance multiple projects and priorities, must be able to multi-task
• Strong interpersonal communication and ability to collaborate with teams; must effectively operate independently, across functional lines, and with internal customers
• Demonstrated personal initiative, self-motivation, flexibility, adaptability and willingness to learn
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Tools including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.

At this time, Novo Nordisk is not currently hiring individuals for this position who now or in the future would require sponsorship for employment visa status.

The base compensation range for this position is $52,000 to $89,000 on an hourly basis. Due to the temporary nature of this program, this position is not eligible to participate in any of the Company's benefit plans and will not be entitled to any paid time off unless otherwise required by applicable law.

We commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equality of opportunity for all our job applicants.

At Novo Nordisk, we're not chasing quick fixes – we're creating lasting change for long-term health. For over 100 years, we've been driven by a single purpose: to defeat serious chronic diseases and help millions of people live healthier lives. This dedication fuels our constant curiosity and inspires us to push the boundaries of what's possible in healthcare. We embrace diverse perspectives, seek out bold ideas, and build partnerships rooted in shared purpose. Together, we're making healthcare more accessible, treating and defeating diseases, and pioneering solutions that create change spanning generations. When you join us, you become part of something bigger – a legacy of impact that reaches far beyond today.

Novo Nordisk is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal laws, rules or regulations.

If you are interested in applying to Novo Nordisk and need special assistance or an accommodation to apply, please call us at 1-855-411-5290. This contact is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.