AI Biologist - Function

About this role

Bioinformatics Engineer - Function

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 Bioinformatics Engineer to join our Function team working at the frontier of what artificial intelligence can achieve in biology.

About the Role

You will contribute to our technical approach for evaluating how AI agents reason through biological function: recovering and interpreting experimental evidence to make informed decisions about binding, stability, immune escape, viral fitness, toxin potency, and protein design.

Working with software engineers and biologists, you'll build ground-truth benchmark datasets (drawn from real discovery and development programs) that rigorously test whether agents can perform the critical quantitative reasoning steps that human scientists execute: parsing noisy assay data, inferring mechanism, and predicting functional outcomes.

Your hands-on expertise in functional biology assays and computational modeling will define how we measure agent capability in understanding and reasoning about biological sequences and structures.

Requirements

- Hands-on experience in biochemistry, biophysics, bioengineering, synthetic biology, virology, microbiology, immunology, or a closely related field

- Direct experience generating or analyzing functional-assay data (titration curves, deep mutational scanning, potency assays, cell-based readouts, etc.) OR computational protein design

- Comfort with quantitative modeling applied to noisy experimental data

- Proficiency in Python and/or R for data analysis & visualization

- Familiarity with at least one of: - Binding affinity & stability (Tite-seq, SPR/BLI, biophysical characterization) - Immune escape & immunogenicity assessment - Viral fitness, host-range, or zoonotic spillover evaluation - Toxin potency or antimicrobial/antiviral resistance - Protein design or structure-guided functional design - Gain-of-function or molecular mechanism investigation

Nice-to-Have

- Experience designing or troubleshooting functional assays (ELISA, cell-based, biochemical)

- Familiarity with deep learning applied to protein design or functional prediction

- Exposure to regulatory or safety considerations in bioengineering

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

- 1099 (or W8-BEN) contract, 40 hrs/week, no end date

- Fully performance-based pay: $120K–$180K, uncapped upside. 2x quota = 2x pay.

- 2-4 week paid ramp - full OTE from day one

- Remote (globally), hybrid, or onsite in SF (onsite preferred)

- Work authorization: OPT visa holders only (not STEM Extension)

- Onsite perks: 2x free meals/day, waterfront office (China Basin), monthly parking (based on availability)

- Candidates with all of the above qualifications + proven management skills will be eligible for more senior positions

Interview Process

Timeline: We move fast: 8-12 days from submission to offer.

1. Intro Screen - Techcnial Recruiter

2. Take-Home Project - HackerRank

3. Technical Interview - Member of Technical Staff

4. Culture Interview - C-Suite (If applicable)

5. Offer

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