Job Offer: AI / LLM Engineer (VB-Tech | INS)
ABOUT VB-TECH & THE INS
VB-Tech (Virtual Brain Technologies) is a Marseille-based deeptech/medtech startup developing BrainXplore™, the world's first patient-specific digital brain twin platform for personalized neurosurgery. Our flagship product, VEP-1, targets drug-resistant epilepsy through SEEG surgical planning based on computational brain modeling. VB-Tech works hand in hand with the Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes (INS) — a joint Inserm and Aix-Marseille University research unit on the La Timone campus in Marseille that combines experimental, theoretical and clinical neuroscience to understand the dynamics of the brain in health and disease, notably epilepsy, and is home to The Virtual Brain platform. Our scientific foundation rests on the EPINOV clinical trial (350+ patients, 13 international centers — results under analysis) and over 25 years of R&D led by Prof. Viktor Jirsa (creator of The Virtual Brain and director of the INS). We are also affiliated with EBRAINS, the European research infrastructure for brain science. Through EBRAINS, we contribute to and draw on a shared ecosystem of open data, brain-simulation tools and high-performance computing resources that advance digital neuroscience and brain medicine across Europe.
We are at an exciting inflection point — with clinical partners at UPMC Pittsburgh, UC Davis Health, and BC Children's Hospital Vancouver — and we are growing our core engineering team.
THE ROLE
As an AI / LLM Engineer at VB-Tech, you will build the intelligent layer that connects clinicians to the virtual brain twin. You will design and implement large language model (LLM) systems on top of BrainXplore™ — our physiological brain simulation environment — enabling users to orchestrate, interrogate and interpret patient-specific brain simulations through natural language. Your work will turn complex simulation outputs into clear, actionable insight, directly supporting clinical decision-making in neurosurgery.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
▸ Design and build LLM-powered clinical copilots that let users interact with the virtual brain twin simulation environment through natural language
▸ Develop retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines that ground model outputs in patient data, simulation results and clinical literature
▸ Implement agentic workflows with tool-use / function-calling to orchestrate brain simulations, parameter exploration and analysis from user intent
▸ Integrate, fine-tune and evaluate open-source and proprietary LLMs for the BrainXplore™ platform
▸ Build guardrails, evaluation and hallucination-mitigation frameworks suitable for a clinical setting
▸ Collaborate closely with neuroscientists and clinicians to validate AI outputs against real patient data and clinical requirements
▸ Write clean, tested, production-quality Python code integrated into the BrainXplore™ platform
REQUIRED PROFILE
Education
▸ MSc or PhD in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Computational Neuroscience, or a closely related field
Technical Skills
▸ Large language models — prompting, fine-tuning, RAG, and agentic / tool-use frameworks
▸ Deep learning — PyTorch (and/or JAX or TensorFlow)
▸ Python — production-quality ML and scientific computing code
▸ LLM application tooling — LangChain / LlamaIndex, vector databases, model serving and API integration
▸ Experience applying AI to clinical, biomedical or scientific-computing domains is a plus
▸ Familiarity with brain simulation, digital twins or neuroscience data is a plus
TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENT
Python PyTorch LLMs
RAG Agentic AI Fine-Tuning
Clinical Copilots Digital Brain Twins Prompt Engineering
POSITION DETAILS
Location Marseille, France (on-site / hybrid)
Contract CDI or fixed-term — to be discussed
Start date As soon as possible
Level MSc minimum — PhD appreciated
Language French and English required
WHY JOIN VB-TECH?
▸ Work on a clinically deployed, internationally recognized platform with real patient impact
▸ Collaborate daily with world-class neuroscientists including Prof. Viktor Jirsa (creator of The Virtual Brain)
▸ Join a fast-growing deeptech startup at Series A stage, with strong academic and clinical partnerships
▸ Be part of an international team with presence in Marseille, Romania
▸ Contribute to an open science ecosystem (EPINOV trial, EBRAINS, EIC Pathfinder)
To Apply
Send your CV and a brief cover note to: l.otten@vb-tech.fr
Subject: AI / LLM Engineer — Application
VB-Tech | INS
Virtual Brain Technologies | Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes
Marseille, France · Deep Tech · MedTech · Neuroscience
UMR 1106 – Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes INS Faculté de Médecine de la Timone
27 Bd Jean Moulin - 13385 Marseille cedex 05. France
Tel : + 33 (0) 4 91 32 42 21 ou 23 | Fax : + 33 (0) 4 91 78 99 14