Senior Research Scientist
SecureBio
Senior Research Scientist
SecureBio
Non-profit advancing biosecurity research and policy
Project/Division: AI, Foundational Research
Start date: As soon as possible
Status: Full-time
Work location: In-person, Bay Area
Approximate compensation: $195,000 – $300,000, based on experience
Reports to: Wet Lab Lead
SecureBio is hiring a Senior Research Scientist to design and run the in vitro capability-verification experiments that our Foundational Research team will use to establish how in silico model performance holds up in real biology.
Our in silico evaluations have become de facto standards, and frontier labs run them before releasing models to the public. Our work has been cited in model cards from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, and has informed safeguards on frontier models. We are a member of the NIST US AI Safety Consortium and a partner to the European AI Office.
It remains an open question whether such digital proxies can truly serve to underpin pivotal, consequential decisions regarding biological risks in AI. That is the question that you will seek to answer.
Our Foundational Research team builds the measurement tools for capabilities that do not yet have established methods. The capability verification workstream complements our work in uplift and hybrid evaluation development.
This kind of work is new: AI just may accelerate biotechnology like semiconductors did computing half a century ago. We think this demands a research facility with the creativity, flexibility, and resources to keep pace; a sort of Bell Labs for biosecurity. We are looking for someone with strong research taste who can work with a diverse team to design rigorous studies from scratch and rapidly produce results that are clear and convincing to AI firms, researchers, and policymakers.
We are currently building a BSL-2 lab and expanding the team that will work from it. You would join early enough to have a significant opportunity to shape both of these.
Design and run in vitro validations of specific capabilities that LLMs and biological AI models demonstrate computationally, on turnarounds short enough to inform pre-release decisions.
Own experimental design rigor across verification studies: power, controls, bias mitigation, replicability, and confound management.
Translate candidate verification tasks into executable experiments, including choosing proxy systems that are both informative about the capability of concern and safe to run.
Critically assess results, and put them in the context of the major threat models.
Work with the evals team to turn verification findings into in silico correlates, so that expensive wet-lab evidence becomes a cheap and repeatable measurement.
Oversee wet lab technical team in the implementation and execution of studies.
Contribute to specification and biological task design for studies of AI uplift of human performance of biology research.
Design and execute demonstrations for policymakers and frontier labs, where the result has to be both rigorous and legible to a non-specialist audience.
Contribute to reports, papers, and our public dashboard of trends in AI biology capabilities.
A strong candidate would have the following qualifications:
A PhD in virology, molecular biology, synthetic biology, protein design, or a closely related field, plus several years of post-PhD experience. We will consider equivalent depth from other paths, but we expect most strong applicants to hold a doctorate.
Hands-on wet-lab depth in at least one relevant area, with the ability to interface across the others.
Past experience working with ≥ BSL-2 agents.
Strong experimental design skills: power analysis, controls, and confound management, applied to small-n studies.
Calibrated judgment about biological risk.
Comfort with novel, non-standardized work where you define the method, and with short, intensive project cycles that shift with model releases.
Commitment to research ethics, documentation, and reproducibility.
Comfort handling confidential and sensitive biosecurity information with discretion.
Alignment with SecureBio's mission of preventing catastrophic pandemics.
Practical experience with biological AI tools (protein design models, sequence models, or similar).
Experience in a biotech startup or other setting where you built a capability from nothing.
Enough programming ability to run and iterate evaluations yourself; working fluency in Python or R.
Experience with Benchling or other LIMS software.
Experience with liquid-handling automation, or with agentic LLM tools such as Claude Code or Codex.
Familiarity with biosecurity policy, threat assessment, or counterterrorism work.
Experience working with AI developers, or in a regulated or NDA-heavy environment.
Joining SecureBio means joining a mission-driven international team dedicated to protecting the world from biological threats. Through in-house research and development and collaborations with experts across academia, industry, and government, we build the tools, technologies, and institutions the world needs to be secure against future biotechnology.
Major projects by the SecureBio team include SecureBio Detection for reliable pandemic detection and our work to understand and reduce biological risks from advanced AI.
Our employee benefits reflect our belief in investing to build the strongest possible team, in which everyone receives the trust and support they need to excel. Our benefits package includes:
Comprehensive healthcare coverage, including health, dental & vision insurance, as well as a yearly mental health allowance for every employee.
Flexible work hours; unlimited paid time off (PTO) for all employees; and minimum 12 weeks fully-paid parental leave.
Generous professional development opportunities, including fully-paid conference sponsorships and a yearly development allowance for every employee.
Employer 401(k) match up to 4% of total salary.
We will review applications on a rolling basis, and are looking for someone to start as soon as possible.
After considering your written application, we may ask you to complete a short work test, and invite you to a screening interview. High-performing candidates may be invited to further interviews and/or paid trial tasks. We will also require up to two reference checks.
We’re committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, and we encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. We especially encourage applications from women, gender minorities, and people of color who are excited about contributing to our mission, and are happy to consider applicants from overseas. We’re an equal opportunity employer.
If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact [email protected].
We offer a referral bonus of up to $5,500 to individuals who refer successful candidates for this position:
To receive these bonuses, we must reasonably believe that you were responsible for referring the candidate to us (e.g. due to you introducing them to us when we didn’t previously know them, or them mentioning you on their application as the reason they heard about the position).
If you refer a candidate that we invite to an in-person work trial, you will receive $1,100;
If the candidate accepts a job offer from us, you will receive a further $4,400, for a total of $5,500.
#LI-DNI
SecureBio is a non-profit that reduces the risk of catastrophic pandemics by combining technology development with policy work through a Delay, Detect, Defend framework. Its tools include DNA-synthesis screening software to slow the spread of dangerous biotechnologies (Delay), and the Nucleic Acid Observatory, which uses untargeted metagenomic sequencing as an early warning system for new threats (Detect). It differentiates itself by pairing in-house research with real-world policy and risk assessment efforts, collaborating with academia, industry, and government, and by running programs like the AIxBio risk evaluation suite and the SecureDNA screening foundation to broaden access to biosurveillance. Its goal is to make society more resilient to biological risks by preventing misuse, early detecting emerging threats, and improving defensive measures such as affordable PPE and safe biotechnologies.
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