Member of Technical Staff, Virology
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Job overview
LatchBio is hiring a Member of Technical Staff, Virology. LatchBio seeks a Member of Technical Staff in Virology to lead safety benchmarking for AI-driven biosecurity. The role involves designing technical approaches to assess misuse of AI in virology, building benchmarks, and evaluating experimental feasibility, while collaborating with research engineers and biologists to ensure responsible deployment of frontier models.
Key focus areas include Design technical approaches to assess AI misuse for biological harm and evaluate safety guardrails., Collaborate with research engineers and biologists to build benchmarks measuring AI assistance in virology experiments., and Troubleshoot wet‑lab protocols and pinpoint where AI‑generated recommendations would fail..
Successful candidates bring PhD In Virology Or Closely Related Field, Doctoral Or Postdoctoral Research Centered On Viruses, and Substantial Hands-On Wet-Lab Virology Experience. Important skills include LLM, Biological Foundation Models, AI-Enabled Biological Design Tools, Python, R, and Experimental Design. Preferred (not required): Virology Experiments Design, Troubleshooting Protocols, Interpreting Viral Genomes, and Interpreting Proteins.
Skills & qualifications
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Full job description
Member of Technical Staff - Virology
As molecular data generation and frontier model intelligence grows, new approaches to data analysis are needed across the biotech industry. Latch is building intelligent, high performance agents for biological data analysis, empowering over 5,000 scientists across 150+ R&D labs to handle data from instrument-to-insights.
We're seeking a Member of Technical Staff for Virology to lead our safety benchmarking efforts in the Biosecurity group, ensuring frontier artificial intelligence is deployed responsibly in biology.
About the Role
You will design our technical approach to understand how agents could be misused for biological harm, and measure where current safety guardrails fall short.
You will work with research engineers and biologists to build benchmarks that measure whether AI systems can meaningfully assist with:
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Designing and assessing virology experiments
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Troubleshooting protocols and identifying where an AI-generated recommendation would fail in the wet lab
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Interpreting viral genomes, proteins, mutations, and phenotypic data
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Selecting, using, and evaluating bioinformatics and biological design tools
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Planning iterative experimental workflows
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Evaluating experimental feasibility across conditions
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Identifying when AI systems provide inaccurate, unsafe, or incomplete guidance in dual-use contexts
Requirements
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PhD in virology or a closely related field, with doctoral or postdoctoral research centered on viruses
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Substantial hands-on wet-lab virology experience, including experimental design, execution, and troubleshooting
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Experience working in BSL-3 or high-containment BSL-2 laboratories
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Have used used or evaluated Large Language Models, biological foundation models, or AI-enabled biological design tools
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Proficiency in Python and/or R
Culture @ Latch
How we work. Genuinely flexible schedules - we just ask that you communicate when you're coming in later than usual. We care most about hard work and output. We're respectfully opinionated, it will always be us against problems, not each other. Optimize for each other's time and bring solutions, not just problems. You'll join a bench suited to your expertise, but we value cross-domain learning and interoperability across teams.
The office & perks. Waterfront office near Oracle Park, 2x free daily meals, unlimited snacks, company outings most months, and team offsites. Plus a vibrant community: cycling, soccer, figure skating, boxing, run clubs, reading clubs, martial arts, music, game nights.
Compensation & Logistics
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$180k+ base, increasing with technical depth and experience
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Variable compensation + equity + stock options
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100% premium covered Blue Shield platinum health plan ($0 deductible / $0 out-of-pocket)
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Free meals (lunch and dinner)
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Waterfront office in China Basin, San Francisco
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Full-time, in-person
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