Scientist, Microbiome

Outpost Bio; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Full medical, dental, and vision coverage

401(k) with match

25 days PTO plus your birthday off

Short- and long-term disability

Job summary

A microbiome research firm in Boston is seeking a scientist to drive wet-lab workstreams for generating proprietary datasets. You will lead screening workstreams for stool-derived communities, ensuring data quality and reproducibility. The ideal candidate holds a PhD in a relevant field and has hands-on experience with microbial culturing. This role offers equity options and outstanding benefits, including full medical coverage and generous PTO. Join a small, dynamic team and influence the future of microbiome research.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience culturing diverse microbes.
• Experience generating reproducible experimental data.
• Working knowledge of microbiome-relevant readouts.

Responsibilities

• Lead screening for stool-derived communities.
• Champion data quality across the pipeline.
• Drive insight for microbiome–compound interactions.

Skills

Curiosity

Rigor

Adaptability

Education

PhD in microbiology, microbiome science, or related field

MSc/BSc with 3+/5+ years industry experience

Tools

16S/metataxonomy

metagenomics

LC-MS-based workflows

Job description

Microbiome research today lives in two worlds. Assay-heavy labs build truth datasets but lack AI to model the complexity. AI teams build promising models on existing data, but can't test causal mechanisms. We're working to narrow this gap. We are hiring a scientist to drive the wet-lab workstreams that generate the proprietary datasets behind our platform. You will execute stool-derived community culturing and anaerobic screening workflows that provide high-quality data to our models in the near term and chart new experiments beyond.

Responsibilities

• Lead screening workstreams for stool-derived communities, including reliable anaerobic culture execution, sample handling, and day-to-day operations and experimental delivery.
• Champion data quality and reproducibility across the pipeline, from sample intake through QC checkpoints, documentation, and downstream data handoff.
• Continuously elevate core protocols by troubleshooting, optimizing parameters, and translating successful approaches into robust, scalable SOPs.
• Drive experimental insight for microbiome–compound interaction studies, clearly communicating results, surfacing failure modes, and proposing actionable next steps.
• Safe and disciplined execution under BSL-2 and anaerobic handling requirements, with rigorous sample tracking and protocol adherence.

Your Background

• PhD in microbiology, microbiome science, molecular biology, or a related field; or MSc/BSc with 3+/5+ years industry experience in microbiology or microbiome workflows.
• Hands-on experience culturing diverse microbes and standardizing/troubleshooting for optimal microbial growth.
• Experience generating reproducible experimental data with clear QC and documentation, executing and troubleshooting assays/screening workflows/equipment
• Working knowledge of at least one microbiome-relevant readout, such as 16S/metataxonomy, metagenomics, metabolomics, or LC‑MS-based workflows.
• You approach new challenges with curiosity, rigor, and adaptability, and are comfortable in a fast-moving, flexible environment.

Nice to Have

• Experience optimizing or scaling high-throughput screening workflows and onboarding new equipment or optimizing new assays.
• Experience culturing stool-derived anaerobes or stool-derived microbes under anaerobic and BSL‑2 conditions.
• Experience working closely with cross‑functional teammates, especially computational, data science, or ML teams.
• Experience working effectively in a startup or other fast-moving, resource‑constrained environment.

Why Join Outpost Bio?

• You'll be the first. You'll help build the experimental infrastructure from the start, influence the workflows, and shape how we generate the proprietary datasets that decode the human microbiome.
• An ML Lab-in-the-loop. Every screen you execute feeds directly into Outpost's AI platform. You'll collaborate with our ML team in a tight feedback loop: your data improves the models, the models guide your next experiments.
• You'll own real equity in what you build. We offer meaningful ISO stock options because we believe the people building this company should share in what it becomes. We want teammates who think like owners, and we structure compensation to reflect that.
• Outstanding benefits. Full medical, dental, and vision coverage from day one (Outpost covers 100% of employee premiums). 401(k) with match. 25 days PTO plus your birthday off. Short- and long-term disability, and commuter benefits.
• Small team, outsized reach. You’re joining a small founding team backed by top-tier investors with deep connections across AI and Bio. The science you do here will directly shape how pharma/consumer companies understand molecule<>microbiome interactions.

About Us

Outpost Bio pairs high-throughput functional assays of human-derived microbial communities with causal machine learning to build predictive models of microbiome-compound interactions. We generate large-scale perturbation datasets using stool-derived communities (SDCs) and multi-omic measurements, then train frontier models that predict metabolism, toxicity, and response at the community level. Headquartered in Boston and London, we’re building the team to create a category-defining platform that transforms R&D.