AI@HHMI Program Manager

Primary Work Address: 19700 Helix Drive, Ashburn, VA, 20147

Current HHMI Employees, click here to apply via your Workday account.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus is a pioneering research center in Ashburn, Virginia, where scientists pursue fundamental questions in the life sciences. Our integrated teams of biologists, computational scientists, and tool-builders innovate research practices and technologies to solve biology’s deepest mysteries. HHMI launched Janelia in 2006, establishing an intellectually enriching environment for scientists to do creative, collaborative, hands-on work. We share our methods, results, and tools with the scientific community.

This role is for someone who turns plans into completed work through careful follow-through, sound judgment, and the ability to bring others along. You use AI tools to work more efficiently, while bringing the skills and understanding to deliver excellent results independently.

AI@HHMI is HHMI's $500 million initiative to integrate AI into every stage of biological research. It is one of Janelia Research Campus's four scientific areas. It hosts research projects led by scientists at Janelia and across HHMI, with AI Scientists and engineers, a large GPU cluster, and industry partners.

You will support the Head of AI@HHMI in running the program. That means projects, budgets, staffing, recruiting, events, and outreach. You will work daily with leadership, scientists, engineers, and operational staff at Janelia and across HHMI. You will build and use computational workflows, and you will keep a simple process simple.

What you will actually do

· Guide projects from approval to closure. Help with proposals, organize reviews and approval decisions, track milestones and end dates, and keep complete records. When a project ends, you close it: coordinate the final report, archive data and code, offboard staff and collaborators, close accounts and contracts

· Keep budget and staffing accurate. Track spending and staffing against each project's budget, work with Finance on the annual budget, and know which positions are open and who is working on what.

· Keep leadership informed and priorities moving. Schedule and prepare briefings, meetings, correspondence, and reports for the Head of AI@HHMI and HHMI leadership, and follow up on open action items

· Understand the science and help the work move forward. Understand the science and computation behind the program and each project well enough to support them competently and talk with computational and experimental scientists as a peer. You do not need to be an AI expert.

· Help us hire, onboard, and offboard. Organize searches for AI Scientists, engineers, and other staff, coordinating with People & Culture throughout the recruiting lifecycle. You will run screening interviews. Get employees, collaborators, and contractors set up with the appropriate resources to do their work and close out accounts and access when they leave.

· Events and outreach. Organize reviews, meetings, seminars, workshops, and visits. Work with HHMI's Digital and Marketing Communication team on the AI@HHMI website, and keep a calendar of conferences, prizes, deadlines, and nominations.

· Handle the paperwork of partnerships. Work with legal, technology transfer, and finance offices on collaborations, industry partnerships, and contracts.

· Leave a trail. Document decisions and project records so someone can find and understand them years later.

What we are looking for

· Uses AI tools for real work but can still do it without them. You use agentic AI tools every day for things like screening applications, curating data, and drafting. You can tell us where a tool failed you and how you caught it. Take the tools away and the work is still done, to the same standard.

· Follows every open item. You can hold a long list of open items, know which few matter this week, and raise problems early.

· Knows what to escalate. You decide what to bring forward and what to just handle.

· Simplifies. When a procedure no longer serves its purpose, you cut it.

· Numbers have to add up. You read a budget or staffing report and notice when something does not match, before it reaches anyone else.

· Discreet. You will handle confidential personnel, candidate, and budget information

Nice to have

· A science or engineering background.

· Experience in a research institute or university.

· Experience with enterprise systems such as Workday or Microsoft 365.

What this role is not

· A calendar-and-inbox job. Scheduling is part of it, but you will own projects, records, and reports.

· A research role. You need to understand the science well enough to support it. You do not need to be an AI expert or run experiments.

· A job that runs on rules. You will make judgment calls, and you will be trusted to make them.

Practical details

This is a full-time, on-site role at Janelia Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia, reporting to the Head of AI@HHMI. You need a master's degree or doctorate in any field and at least three years of project management experience, including scientific or industrial research and development programs with budgets, timelines, and staffing. We set the level based on what you bring and what AI@HHMI needs the role to do, not on years alone. As a guide, we expect a minimum of 3 years of experience for Program Manager I with levels II and III representing expanded experience and scope.

To apply: Include a one-page summary of something complex you managed or analyzed. Tell us which tools, if any, you used to write it.

Physical Requirements

Remaining in a normal seated or standing position for extended periods of time; reaching and grasping by extending hand(s) or arm(s); dexterity to manipulate objects with fingers, for example using a keyboard; communication skills using the spoken word; ability to see and hear within normal parameters; ability to move about workspace. The position requires mobility, including the ability to move materials weighing up to several pounds (such as a laptop computer or tablet).

Persons with disabilities may be able to perform the essential duties of this position with reasonable accommodation. Requests for reasonable accommodation will be evaluated on an individual basis.

Please Note:

This job description sets forth the job’s principal duties, responsibilities, and requirements; it should not be construed as an exhaustive statement, however. Unless they begin with the word “may,” the Essential Duties and Responsibilities described above are “essential functions” of the job, as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Hiring Pay Range

AI@HHMI Program Manager I: $105,000 - $131,000

AI@HHMI Program Manager II: $122,635 - $153,300

AI@HHMI Program Manager III: $142,385 - $178,000

Pay Type:

Annual

The posted range reflects HHMI’s good faith estimate of the anticipated hiring salary range for this role at the time of posting. Actual hiring compensation is determined by a candidate’s qualifications, experience, and internal equity.

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Compensation and Benefits

Our employees are compensated from a total rewards perspective in many ways for their contributions to our mission, including competitive pay, exceptional health benefits, retirement plans, time off, and a range of recognition and wellness programs. Visit our Benefits at HHMI site to learn more. 

HHMI is an Equal Opportunity Employer

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