Senior Scientist – Spatial Biology & AI Data Lead

Breakout Ventures; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Breakout Ventures is seeking a Senior Scientist to join our frontier team at the interface of spatial biology and AI model development. You will drive hands-on execution, protocol development, and quality standards for spatial biology experiments on human tissue samples in a lab built to fuel next-generation AI models.

The role emphasizes independent execution, data quality enforcement across high-volume runs, and mentorship of junior staff, with opportunities to shape the data workflows

Qualifications

• PhD in molecular biology, genomics, cell biology, biomedical engineering, or a related field.
• 2–5+ years of industry hands-on experience with spatial transcriptomics platforms (CosMx, Xenium, MERFISH…).
• Experience with spatial proteomics platforms and immunofluorescence panel design is desirable.
• Proven ability to troubleshoot wet-lab and imaging-based assay failures.
• Strong knowledge of spatial transcriptomics QC metrics and data analysis.
• Leadership and mentorship experience within a lab setting.

Responsibilities

• Independently plan, perform and troubleshoot spatial biology experiments on human tissue samples.
• Establish and enforce data quality standards across experiments and analysis pipelines.
• Mentor and train team members on technique, rigor, and quality judgment.
• Collaborate with Histology and Scientific Operations to ensure project execution.
• Lead cross-functional projects with Engineering and ML teams to design data for AI model training.

Skills

Spatial biology

In situ hybridization

Proteomics

Data QC

Leadership

Mentorship

Programming (Python/R)

Computational analysis

Education

PhD in molecular biology, genomics, cell biology, biomedical engineering, or related field

Job description

Breakout Ventures is seeking a Senior Scientist to join our frontier team at the interface of spatial biology and AI model development. You will drive hands-on execution, protocol development, and quality standards for spatial biology experiments on human tissue samples in a lab built to fuel next-generation AI models.

The role emphasizes independent execution, data quality enforcement across high-volume runs, and mentorship of junior staff, with opportunities to shape the data workflows