Member of Technical Staff - Computational Biology

Location: San Francisco, CA

Department: Science

About

Edison Scientific builds and commercializes AI agents for science. Scientific discovery moves too slowly, and autonomous AI agents are how we intend to fix that. We're assembling a team of top researchers and engineers across AI and biology to build an AI scientist.

Role

As a Member of Technical Staff - Computational Biology, you'll build and evaluate AI agent systems to automate biological discovery. You'll focus on improving how LLMs execute complex scientific tasks, creating benchmarks to measure their performance, and collaborating with researchers to generate and validate novel findings in biology.

You'll be working alongside exceptionally smart, mission-driven people on problems that genuinely matter. Instead of optimizing ad clicks, you'll be advancing science and making breakthrough discoveries in basic research. We're well-resourced with a wet lab, extensive compute, and the tools you need to do your best work. 

This role is on-site at our San Francisco office in the Dogpatch neighborhood. Our office is a converted warehouse with high ceilings, open space, and a team that genuinely believes in what they're building. 

This position is part of the Discoveries team. 

Responsibilities

• Improving the ability of LLM agents to execute long, coherent data-driven discovery tasks
• Building benchmarks to automatically evaluate the performance of LLM agents on a wide variety of scientific tasks
• Working with collaborators to apply AI agents to make novel discoveries in biology
• Evaluating the accuracy of AI-generated discoveries through independent human analysis
• Leading or contributing to publications describing technical achievements

Requirements

• PhD in biological science, broadly defined  
• Experience analyzing one or more of the following types of complex biological data in a first-author publication: sc-omics data, high throughput screen data, proteomics or lipidomics data, human genetic data, imaging data, or protein structure data. 
• Expertise in one area of mammalian biology
• Familiar with the advantages and limitations of chat-based LLM and agentic coding tools to perform data analysis tasks in biological research
• Strong critical thinking skills and ability to identify mistakes in LLM-generated analyses
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills 
• Good attention to detail

Bonus points for

• You enjoy quickly iterating on ideas through rapid prototyping
• You operate with high independence, and like to execute complex tasks to completion with minimal supervision
• You thrive when working on a diversity of projects in sprint-based formats, and have high comfort with uncertainty
• You enjoy trying out the newest AI tools 
• You are proficient in experimental design, and could execute experiments yourself or via a CRO if necessary

Salary

$160,000 - $250,000  •  Offers equity

Why join us?

• Competitive salary and equity
• Full healthcare coverage — we pay 100% of premiums for you and your dependents
• Support for growing families, including a yearly new parent stipend and fertility coverage through Carrot
• 401(k) company matching
• $300 health and wellness benefit
• Lunch is on us every day you're in the office, and dinner is on us when you're working late
• Regular team offsites and company events
• A fast-moving, mission-driven culture where smart people do their best work and actually enjoy doing it