Scientist, Biology

Medra; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

401k

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Unlimited PTO

Lunches & dinners

Job summary

Medra is building an on-site, intelligent platform that combines AI, robotics and biology to accelerate life science research. As part of the forward‑deployed team, you will immerse with customer scientists to validate and optimize the platform in real-world workflows.

The role emphasizes wet-lab experiments, hands-on training, and close collaboration with engineers to ensure scientific outcomes and value delivery for the customer.

Qualifications

• Master's degree + 3 years of hands-on biological research experience.
• PhD in biological sciences with strong publications track record.

Responsibilities

• Be the scientific subject matter expert and guide scoping, development, and prioritization of capabilities.
• Design & execute wet-lab experiments to validate autonomous AI against KPIs.
• Deploy on-site to customer labs, train scientists, and provide ongoing support.
• Own installation, QC, and troubleshooting of all lab instruments on the platform.
• Support internal R&D on new protocols and assays and explore emerging tech.
• Keep detailed SOPs and experimental records for all workflows.
• Communicate results clearly, on time and with scientific rigor.

Skills

Biology

Wet-lab techniques

Experimental design

Scientific communication

Education

Master's degree + 3 years experience

PhD in biological sciences

Tools

Laboratory instruments

ELN/LIMS familiarity

Job description

What We’re Building:

At Medra, our mission is to use AI, robotics, and biology to accelerate life science research, with the ultimate goal of eradicating disease. We have been quietly building the foundational layers of our Physical AI Scientist platform:

Physical AI that can operate scientific instruments with human-level dexterity.

Scientific AI that can analyze results, reason about next steps, and close the loop autonomously.

This is an incredibly ambitious mission, but we believe that a team of ambitious people with high ownership can accomplish incredible things.

The Team:

• We're a team of passionate, mission-driven engineers and scientists from companies like Tesla, Amazon, SpaceX, and Neuralink. We're collaborative and love moving fast, both with our product and on team trips skiing or go-karting!

• As a team, we love nerding out about engineering and robotics — plus other topics like race cars or cooking. We like learning new things and then sharing our new knowledge with each other.

• Our team is opinionated and straightforward. We don't mind intense discussions about design tradeoffs. If we have arguments or miscommunication, we resolve conflicts quickly and empathetically.

The Role:

As a scientist on our forward‑deployed team, your objective is to embed yourself with your scientific counterparts at the customer, acting as a true partner on their team to ensure that the Medra platform is achieving scientific outcomes and driving value for the organization. You will become an expert in our customer’s science, deeply understanding their scientific requirements and applying the scientific method (hypothesis, design, experimentation, analysis) to test and validate the fidelity of our Physical AI Scientist platform for their workflows. You will be in close communication with our end users (scientists) and have your eyes and ears on the ground to help us get ahead of any issues, while taking any insights and learnings from the customer back to the company to guide improvements to our product.

Internally, you will partner closely with the engagement manager and forward‑deployed engineers to drive a successful deployment. You will work alongside an elite team of robotics, software, and hardware engineers to provide scientific oversight during scoping, build, and deployment. You will be a platform super‑user who understands the strengths and limitations of our platform, and can apply creativity (and scientific intuition) to solve challenging problems.

We’re looking for someone who acts with urgency and thrives under pressure. This is a unique opportunity to use your skillset to what will be a step‑change in drug discovery through artificial intelligence and robotics, and will offer significantly more exposure than working in a traditional biotech or pharma role.

In This Role, You Will:

• Be the scientific subject matter expert - understand customer requirements and provide biological context to guide scoping, product development, and capability prioritization.

• Design & execute wet‑lab experiments to validate Medra’s autonomous Physical AI against scientific KPIs/metrics

• Deploy on‑site to our customer’s labs - embed with their scientists to validate the science, conduct hands‑on training on the robot & instruments, and provide ongoing support as they ramp up usage

• Own the installation, QC, and troubleshooting/error‑handing for all laboratory instruments on the Physical AI platform

• Support internal R&D on new protocols and assays, and explore emerging technologies & techniques

• Keep detailed experimental records and documentation (SOPs) for all workflows

• Communicate results clearly, succinctly, and on‑time

Let’s Talk If You Have:

• Master's degree + 3 years of experience OR PhD in biological sciences or related field

• Deep scientific expertise as evidenced by a track record of top‑tier publications / presentations

• Excellent interpersonal skills and a demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively within a team.

• Innate curiosity about science and technology

(OPTIONAL) Bonus Points If You Have:

• Expertise in adapting scientific workflows for execution with robotics and automation equipment / instrumentation

• Hands‑on experience with emerging AI/ML tools and technologies

• Familiarity with enterprise software platforms and integrations with lab systems (ELN, LIMS, etc.).

• Experience in dynamic, start‑up environments.

What we offer:

• An opportunity to fundamentally change the way that scientific research happens

• Fast‑paced, creative, and collaborative work environment

• Significant equity ownership

• 401k

• Medical insurance and dental Insurance

• Unlimited PTO

• Weekday lunches and dinners

This position is 100% in‑person, you must be able to come on‑site to our San Francisco office. We offer relocation benefits for applicants who need to relocate. Travel is required, up to 25-50%.

Medra is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion or religious creed, mental or physical disability, medical condition, genetic information, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, military or veteran status, citizenship, or other characteristics protected by state, federal or local law or our other policies. We value diversity at Medra and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!