Head of Biology

Madrona Venture Labs; United States; On-site; USD 230,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k matching

Health, dental, vision

Paid vacation

Catered lunches

Visa sponsorship available

Job summary

Gray Swan is building a biology safety capability to evaluate AI systems for dangerous biological misuse and to develop scalable safety infrastructure. You will serve as the technical authority across red-teaming, evaluation, and safety deployments with AI labs and industry partners.

The role shapes a new technical function at a leading AI security company, combining synthetic biology, biosecurity, and machine learning to reduce catastrophic AI risks.

Responsibilities

• Design and lead adversarial evaluations of frontier LLMs for biological misuse risks across text, agentic, and multimodal systems.
• Partner with ML engineers and researchers to translate biological expertise into scalable evaluation datasets, classifiers, guardrails, and benchmarks.
• Develop and maintain Gray Swan's CBRN harm taxonomy to evolve with model capabilities.
• Produce clear technical risk assessments and actionable recommendations for labs, policymakers, and stakeholders.
• Build and lead a high-performing biology team with rigorous evaluation standards and scalable safety infra.

Job description

About Gray Swan

Gray Swan is on a mission to empower the world to use AI safely and securely. We evaluate AI models for the leading frontier labs along with building real-time threat detection and adaptive adversarial red teaming agents for teams deploying AI.

We're a team of approximately 50 people, well-funded, growing quickly. Our work directly influences how the world deploys AI agents and systems at scale..

Learn more about how we work.

The Role

Come build and lead Gray Swan's biology safety capability from the ground up, serving as the technical authority on biological misuse risk across red-teaming, evaluation, benchmarking, defenses, and safety infrastructure development. You'll play a critical role in reducing biological risks from frontier AI systems through partnerships with leading AI labs, translating deep biological expertise into scalable AI safety systems that help define the industry's standards for evaluating dangerous capabilities.

This is a rare opportunity to shape an entirely new technical function at one of the world's leading AI security companies, working at the intersection of synthetic biology, biosecurity, AI safety, and machine learning.

If you have PhD-level expertise in biosecurity, molecular biology, synthetic biology, microbiology, immunology, or a related field, significant experience with AI safety, biological risk assessment, or dual-use research, and a drive to reduce catastrophic AI risks, we'd love to hear from you.

What You’ll Do:

• Design and lead adversarial evaluations of frontier LLMs for biological misuse risks, including agent acquisition, pathogen characterisation and enhancement, biosecurity screening bypass, and emerging biotechnology capabilities across text, agentic, and multimodal systems.
• Partner closely with machine learning engineers and AI researchers to translate biological expertise into technical requirements for scalable evaluation datasets, classifiers, guardrails, benchmarks, fine-tuned models, and automated red-teaming for both internal products and frontier AI lab partners.
• Develop and maintain the B in Gray Swan's CBRN harm taxonomy, ensuring biological risk frameworks evolve alongside rapidly advancing model capabilities.
• Produce clear technical risk assessments and actionable recommendations for frontier AI labs, enterprise customers, policymakers, and internal stakeholders.
• Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing team of biology subject matter experts while establishing rigorous evaluation standards, quality processes, and scalable safety infrastructure.
• Represent Gray Swan as the company's biology safety expert through collaborations with AI labs, biosecurity organizations, government partners, and the broader AI safety research community.

Who You Are:

• PhD in biology, particularly in microbiology, virology, synthetic biology, protein engineering, or a closely related discipline, with postdoctoral or equivalent research experience.
• Deep understanding of biological misuse risks, dual-use research, pathogen biology, synthetic biology, or biosecurity.
• Experience conducting adversarial evaluations, biological risk assessments, AI safety research, or developing safety datasets for frontier AI systems.
• Familiarity with international biosecurity frameworks, dual-use governance, responsible biotechnology practices, and emerging AI safety standards.
• Comfortable operating at the intersection of cutting‑edge biology, machine learning, and AI security.
• Thrive in ambiguous, fast-moving environments where you'll define strategy while building new systems from the ground up.
• A builder who enjoys creating teams, processes, and technical infrastructure, not simply maintaining existing programs.

Bonus Points If You Have:

• Experience developing machine learning systems, biological safety classifiers, or evaluation pipelines for high-risk biological capabilities.
• Hands‑on experience with frontier AI model evaluations, red‑teaming, prompt engineering, or AI capability benchmarking.
• Experience working with government biosecurity organizations, frontier AI labs, or organizations focused on catastrophic biological risk.
• Publications or significant contributions in AI safety, biosecurity, synthetic biology, or dual‑use governance.
• Strong programming or data science experience (Python, ML tooling, biological data analysis).

If you don't meet every qualification, we still encourage you to apply. We care more about your ability to solve important problems than checking every box.

You’ll Thrive Here If You:

• Want visibility across the frontier of AI safety, helping evaluate multiple frontier models and working directly with leading AI labs.
• Are excited to build the infrastructure that makes biological AI safety scalable.
• Are motivated by reducing catastrophic risks from increasingly capable AI systems.
• Enjoy turning cutting‑edge scientific expertise into practical systems that improve AI safety.
• Have a vision for what world‑class biology safety should look like and are excited to build it.

What We Offer:

We offer a competitive compensation package designed to reward impact and incentivize growth. Our compensation philosophy is informed by our current valuation and recent industry data.

Compensation: $230,000 - $280,000 plus performance based bonus and meaningful equity package

Benefits:

• 401k with up to 4% matching
• 28 days annual leave (vacation + holidays)
• Health, dental, and vision coverage
• Catered lunches (Pittsburgh office)
• Flexible work arrangements
• Visa sponsorship available for exceptional candidates

Interview Process

Application review. We read everything; we’ll respond within 10 days.

Online technical screen (15 min). Complete a simple, job‑relevant exercise.

Intro call (30 min). We learn about you; you learn about us.

Bio and AI expertise interview (60 min). Go in depth on relevant bio misuse and adversarial AI data topics.

Experience & culture interview (60 min). Conversational exploration of the skills fit.

Reference checks. We’ll reach out to 3-5 references that you provide.

Offer. If it’s mutual, we move fast.