Research Scientist, Biosecurity, DeepMind

Overview

In this role, you advance AI-enabled biosecurity research to mitigate biological threats. You will drive research across biology and AI, shaping the roadmap and delivering insights to technical and non-technical stakeholders. You synthesize complex findings into actionable reports and presentations, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate research into responsible tools. A key focus is evaluating risks of specialized science models and contributing to policy-aligned mitigation strategies.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to AI and biosecurity research that supports publications and product development
• Synthesize research findings into clear reports and presentations for diverse audiences
• Shape the research roadmap by identifying critical technical gaps
• Design and implement mitigation strategies addressing biosecurity risks of specialized science models
• Engage with the broader biosecurity community through internal and external engagements (conferences, workshops, working groups)
• Set up large-scale experiments and prototype implementations to test ideas
• Publish findings and collaborate with partner universities and institutes
• Assess and mitigate biosecurity risks to ensure responsible release of tools from DeepMind’s Science unit

Key requirements

• PhD in Virology, Microbiology, Infectious Diseases, or related field or equivalent practical experience
• Experience with biosecurity topics (e.g., metagenomic surveillance, de novo pathogen design, LLM-based uplift)
• Experience implementing core ML/AI concepts
• Experience in genomics and computing solutions
• Experience publishing biosecurity research

• Collaborative and cross-functional teamwork
• Ability to communicate complex concepts clearly to technical and non-technical audiences
• Adaptability in dynamic and ambiguous environments
• Core ML/AI concepts
• Genomics and computing solutions
• Metagenomic surveillance (conceptual)

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