Member of Technical Staff, Virology
AI in this role
Member of Technical Staff - Virology
Latch builds rigorous scientific benchmarks (benchmarks.bio) that measure how well AI agents perform real biology. Frontier AI labs and pharma use them to answer one question: can an agent handle the messy, multi-layer reasoning that real biological work demands?
Every benchmark is grounded in real experimental and clinical work, including designing experiments, interpreting data, reading clinical endpoints, and advancing compounds. Each is built by scientists who've done that work themselves.
We're roughly 100 people in San Francisco, backed by Lux Capital, Coatue, Fifty Years, Haystack, Jeff Dean, Alec Nielsen, and George Church.
We're seeking a Member of Technical Staff for Virology to lead our Virology benchmark and define how the field measures AI in Virology.
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:
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 only ask that you are extra communicative 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, never each other. We optimize for each other's time and bring solutions, not just problems.
Office & Perks. Waterfront office near Oracle Park, 2x free daily meals, unlimited snacks, company outings most months, and team offsites. Plus a vibrant Latch community: cycling, soccer, figure skating, boxing, run clubs, reading clubs, martial arts, music, game nights.
Compensation & Logistics
Full-time, in-person
Unlimited PTO (truly)
Work Visa sponsorship
Flexible Spending Account
401 contribution (no match)
Profit Share + Ambitious Equity
Team-wide science reading groups
100% covered Health, dental, vision
Relocation Assistance (if applicable)
Lunch and dinner provided every workday
Waterfront office in China Basin, San Francisco
Company-sponsored professional development
Flexible working hours, so long as you maintain an onsite presence
Best office dog: Nix
Interview Process
Intro Screen (30m): Recruitment Team
Intro Technical Screen (30m): Member of Technical Staff/CTO
Deeper Technical Screen (1hr): Member of Technical Staff/CTO
Onsite Work Trial: 2-3 days (we will take care of all accommodations)
Decision: 1-3 days after your interview
How we score this
Member of Technical Staff, Virology at LatchBio scores 91 out of 100 on AI centrality, which makes it AI Level 4 of 4 (Builds AI) on this board. The level measures how much of the work is AI, not seniority.
AI Level 4. Building AI systems is the job itself: without AI, the role would not exist.
- AI Level 480 to 100
- AI Level 360 to 79
- AI Level 240 to 59
- AI Level 10 to 39
Bands come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Open the description and count.
Prepare for this job
A free preview built only from this posting: what it asks for, what you could be asked in an interview, and how to adjust your resume.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- How do you decide when an AI agent can act on its own versus asking for approval first?
- Walk me through how you've used Haystack in your day-to-day work.
- How would you decide a model or AI system is ready to ship?
- Tell me about a time a model underperformed in production. How did you find out, and what did you change?
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: AI Agents and Haystack. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them — a tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Lead with what you built, trained or shipped — this role is judged on the AI system itself, not the tools around it.
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