Head of Lab Platform

The opportunity

We are seeking a Head of Lab Platform to join our team working at the interface of generative AI and synthetic biology. You will lead and evolve our experimental capabilities, connecting high throughput assay work with our AI workflows and driving us towards a fully autonomous lab. This is an opportunity to think big: to build the infrastructure that closes the loop between biological experimentation and machine learning at scale. You will oversee a team of scientists, set the strategic vision for our lab platform, and work in close collaboration with machine learning teams. A strong blend of software, hardware, and biomolecular skills is essential.

Who we are

At Latent Labs, we are building frontier models that learn the fundamentals of biology. We pursue ambitious goals with curiosity and are committed to scientific excellence. Before building Latent Labs, our team co-developed DeepMind's Nobel-prize winning AlphaFold, invented latent diffusion, and built pioneering lab data management systems as well as high throughput protein screening platforms. At Latent Labs you will be working with some of the brightest minds in generative AI and biology.

Our team is committed to interdisciplinary exchange, continuous learning and collaboration. We're looking for innovators passionate about tackling complex challenges and maximizing positive global impact.

Who you are

• You are a lab automation expert. You bring a rare blend of hardware and software lab skills. You have deep experience designing, deploying, and troubleshooting automated workflows, liquid handling systems, and efficiently integrating with LIMS infrastructure. You think creatively about how to connect wet lab operations with agentic AI workflows, and you have concrete ideas for how to push our platform towards full lab autonomy.
• You are a strong biomolecular and biochemistry scientist. You have generalisable expertise across a range of assay types and biological modalities. You are deeply familiar with workflows involving DNA synthesis, assembly, cloning, transformation, and quantitative read-outs (e.g. flow cytometry, NGS, binding affinity assays). You can scale these workflows into the high throughput regime and have hands-on experience with both arrayed and pooled formats. You thrive at the interface of wet lab and data, understanding how experimental design choices shape what can and cannot be learned from the data collected.

• You are a successful scientist. You have a Ph.D. or equivalent experience in biology, synthetic biology, computational biology, or a related field. You have a proven track record of leading successful commercial and / or academic research projects, demonstrated through publications and contributions to the scientific community, e.g. in Nature, Science, Cell or PNAS.
• You empower your team. You lead teams of scientists. You win over and motivate people with great ideas, appreciation and empathy. You love to connect people and enable them to perform at their highest levels. You have excellent communication and presentation skills with the ability to convey complex scientific concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• You are a mission driven innovator. You are passionate about making a positive impact on the world, whether it's for patients, partners or beyond. You are motivated by the end goal and are flexible in adapting to different approaches and methodologies. You constantly seek new, innovative ways to engineer biology while leveraging existing knowledge and expertise.
• You thrive in a dynamic and ambiguous environment. You excel in a fast-paced setting where goals must be achieved efficiently and urgently. You have a keen eye for creating then optimising processes to improve speed and repeatability. You are a champion for lab automation - across hardware, software, and the agentic workflows that will increasingly orchestrate both. You are excited about what a fully autonomous lab could look like and have the vision and pragmatism to build towards it.

What sets you apart (preferred not required)

• You have built a lab from scratch. You have gone from zero to operational - selecting instruments, establishing workflows, hiring scientists, and building the culture and systems that let a lab scale. This experience sets you apart from those who have only inherited existing platforms.
• You have worked in a young biotech before. You have experience in startups and contributed meaningfully to the growth of the company. You understand the difference between moving fast and moving recklessly, and you thrive in the ambiguity of an early-stage environment.
• You bring biological vision, not just operational capability. You have opinions about what biology to do and why - whether in drug design, target selection, or experimental strategy. You see the lab platform not just as infrastructure, but as a means to generate the most scientifically valuable data possible.
• You are computationally independent. You are as comfortable writing scripts and integrating APIs as you are debugging an instrument on the bench.

Your responsibilities

1. Lead and operate the lab platform [~50% of your time]:
   
   • Provide strategic direction and oversight for the lab platform scientists, spanning high throughput validation, data collection, and automation workstreams.
   • Manage and conduct the screening workloads with the team. Hands-on at the bench, if required.
   • Work with the the Head of Operations to organise the lab operations.
   • Foster a collaborative and innovative environment, promoting a culture of technical excellence and continuous learning.
   • Mentor and develop team members, enabling their professional growth and fostering their technical expertise.
   • Manage and develop CRO partnerships, identifying when to leverage external capacity and ensuring data quality and turnaround times meet our internal standards.
2. Lab automation vision and strategy [~30% of your time]:
   
   • Develop and own a comprehensive lab platform strategy: high throughput validation will remain central, and we want to significantly expand our data collection capabilities and progress towards full lab autonomy.
   • Identify, evaluate, and integrate new automation hardware and software.
   • Identify and prioritise platform development areas and projects with the highest potential for scientific impact and commercial success.
   • Develop and execute plans to connect laboratory workflows with agentic AI systems, enabling closed-loop experimental design, execution, and learning.
3. Platform integration and collaboration [~20% of your time]:
   
   • Work closely with computational biologists, machine learners, and software engineers to deeply integrate the experimental platform with our AI workflows - ensuring that data flows seamlessly from bench to model and back again.
   • Ensure seamless data integration and interoperability between different components of the platform and the interface with machine learning.
   • Integrate external services into our experimental platform work flows.

Apply!

We offer strongly competitive compensation and benefits packages, a stimulating work environment, and the opportunity to shape the future of synthetic biology through the application of breakthrough generative models. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds. The role will be based in San Francisco.

To apply, please fill in our application form