Biomaterials Engineer

Becoming; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Meaningful equity

Full benefits

High-ownership environment

Rapid growth opportunities

Job summary

Becoming is seeking a Biomaterials Engineer to design hydrogel-based environments that support long-duration biological systems. You will bridge materials, biology, and engineered hardware, translating in vivo conditions into ex vivo material platforms.

You will prototype rapidly, characterize mechanical and transport properties, and collaborate with biology and hardware teams to build reproducible fabrication protocols and robust system architectures.

Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent in materials science, biomaterials, chemical/biomedical engineering.
• Experience designing hydrogel biomaterials for biological systems.
• Deep expertise in polymer chemistry and crosslinking.
• Experience-engineering surface properties affecting biology.
• Proven ability to prototype rapidly and test in ex vivo settings.

Responsibilities

• Design hydrogel-based biomaterials with controlled mechanics and transport.
• Characterize in vivo environments and translate to ex vivo systems.
• Prototype material formulations and iterate to meet system needs.
• Ensure materials work with perfusion and long-duration operation.
• Collaborate with biology and hardware teams to co-design systems.
• Identify and resolve material failure modes in real environments.
• Develop reproducible fabrication and preparation protocols.
• Characterize surface properties influencing biology and performance.
• Design experiments to study material environments' effects on development.

Skills

Biomaterials design

Hydrogel materials

Polymer chemistry

Surface modification

Soft material mechanics

Transport/diffusion

Interdisciplinary teamwork

Rapid prototyping

Biological systems understanding

Experimental troubleshooting

Education

PhD in Materials Science

Biomaterials or related field

Industrial experience acceptable

Tools

Rheology

Surface characterization

Job description

About Becoming

Becoming is building Developmental Intelligence: AI for predicting how organisms change over time.

Most experimental systems fail when metabolic demands become too high. We are building systems that don't — enabling sustained, controllable biological processes over long time horizons so that development, adaptation, and failure can be observed, perturbed, and predicted.

Materials are foundational to this effort. The environments we build must maintain defined mechanical, chemical, and transport properties while supporting living biological systems for extended durations. These materials are not passive scaffolds — they are engineered components of working biological systems.

The Role

We are hiring a Biomaterials Engineer to design the material environments that enable long-duration biological systems at Becoming.

This role sits at the interface of materials, biology, and engineered systems. You will design hydrogel-based environments that support complex biological processes while maintaining predictable physical and biochemical properties over time.

A key part of the role is understanding in vivo environments and translating those conditions into engineered ex vivo systems. You must be able to analyze biological environments, identify the critical physical and biochemical parameters that support them, and design materials that recreate or support those conditions outside the body.

This role requires high agency, creativity, and strong systems thinking. Materials must work within complex systems that include perfusion, sensing, and hardware. You should be comfortable rapidly prototyping new materials, testing them in real biological environments, identifying failure modes, and iterating quickly.

We are specifically looking for candidates with industry experience translating biomaterials into working systems or products.

What You'll Own

• Design hydrogel-based biomaterials with controlled mechanical, biochemical, and transport properties
• Characterize in vivo biological environments and identify key parameters that support biological function
• Translate those parameters into engineered ex vivo material systems
• Rapidly prototype and iterate material formulations to meet system-level requirements
• Engineer materials compatible with perfusion and long-duration biological operation
• Characterize material behavior including stiffness, degradation, diffusion, and structural stability
• Engineer and characterize material surface properties that influence biological interactions and system performance
• Design experiments to understand how material environments influence biological organization and development
• Work closely with biology and hardware teams to co-design materials and system architectures
• Identify and resolve material failure modes in real operating environments
• Develop reproducible fabrication and preparation protocols

Who You Are

You are someone who:

Operates with high agency — you take ownership of problems and drive solutionsTakes ownership of outcomes, not just data collectionBrings high energy to complex, dynamic biological systemsActs with high integrity — you are honest about uncertainty, limits, and tradeoffsCommunicates directly and clearly, especially when systems are not behaving as expectedIs self-aware about your strengths and gaps, proactively fills them and open to feedbackRapid prototyping mindset — ability to iterate material systems quicklyCreativity in biomaterials design Systems thinking — ability to reason about interactions between materials, biology, and engineered systems

Requirements

Required

• Industry experience developing biomaterials in a commercial or translational environment (required)
• PhD in Materials Science, Biomaterials, Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, or related field, or equivalent industry experience
• Deep expertise designing and working with hydrogel materials and their interaction with biological systems
• Strong understanding of polymer chemistry, crosslinking strategies, soft material mechanics, and surface properties
• Experience engineering or modifying surface properties (e.g., ligand presentation, charge, wettability, topology) that influence biological behavior
• Experience tuning material properties such as stiffness, degradation, diffusion, and biochemical signaling
• Experience translating material systems into functioning biological platforms or products
• Strong experimental and troubleshooting skills

Strong Signals

• Biomaterials used in tissue engineering or regenerative medicine
• Materials designed for perfusion or dynamic fluid environments
• Experience studying or recreating in vivo tissue microenvironments
• Mechanical characterization of soft materials (e.g., rheology)
• Transport characterization (diffusion, permeability)
• Experience working in interdisciplinary teams integrating biology and engineering

Benefits

• Competitive salary and meaningful equityFull benefitsHigh-trust, high-ownership environmentRapid growth in scope and responsibility