Member of Technical Staff, Virology

About this role

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 evaluations that measure whether AI systems can meaningfully assist with:

- Designing and assessing virology experiments

- Troubleshooting protocols and identifying where an AI-generated recommendation would fail in the wet lab

- Interpreting viral genomes, proteins, mutations, and phenotypic data

- Selecting, using, and evaluating bioinformatics and biological design tools

- Planning iterative experimental workflows

- Evaluating experimental feasibility across conditions

- Identifying when AI systems provide inaccurate, unsafe, or incomplete guidance in dual-use contexts

Requirements

- PhD in virology or a closely related field, with doctoral or postdoctoral research centered on viruses

- Substantial hands-on wet-lab virology experience, including experimental design, execution, and troubleshooting

- Experience working in BSL-3 or high-containment BSL-2 laboratories

- Have used used or evaluated Large Language Models, biological foundation models, or AI-enabled biological design tools

- 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

- $180k+ base, increasing with technical depth and experience

- Variable compensation + equity + stock options

- 100% premium covered Blue Shield platinum health plan ($0 deductible / $0 out-of-pocket)

- Free meals (lunch and dinner)

- Waterfront office in China Basin, San Francisco

- Full-time, in-person

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