---
title: 'AI Biologist - Oligonucleotide Drug Discovery at LatchBio'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/ai-biologist-oligonucleotide-drug-discovery-latchbio-san-francisco-70tmvnpejcfb'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# AI Biologist - Oligonucleotide Drug Discovery at LatchBio

- **Company:** LatchBio
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-07-24
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/latchbio/da03dcbe-20eb-4d05-9f36-bfe8f3a985a7

## Job description

Bioinformatics Engineer - Oligonucleotide Drug Discovery

As molecular data generation and frontier model intelligence grows, new approaches to data analysis are needed across the biotech industry. Latch is building intelligent, high-performance agents for biological data analysis, empowering over 5,000 scientists across 150+ R&D labs to handle data from instrument-to-insights.

We're seeking a Bioinformatics Engineer to join our Oligonucleotide Drug Discovery working at the frontier of what artificial intelligence can achieve in biology.

## About the Role

You will contribute to our technical approach to teaching agents how to understand and handle complex drug discovery and development data, working across end-to-end workflows from instrument outputs and experimental readouts to real scientific decisions. You will work as part of a team of software engineers, biologists, and drug hunters building datasets to teach these agents to reason better across:

- Genetic target and MoA selection
- ASO/siRNA drug design
- Screening and functional characterization
- Pharmacology

## Requirements

- 3+ years hands-on experience with oligonucleotide (ASO/siRNA), RNA therapeutics, or related
- Experience in drug target validation or mechanism-of-action studies using functional or population genomics
- Familiarity with drug discovery and development workflows - sequence design, knockdown screening, or preclinical PK/PD
- Proficiency in AI agent use

Culture @ Latch

How we work. Genuinely flexible schedules - we just ask that you communicate when you're coming in later than usual. We care most about hard work and output. We're respectfully opinionated, it will always be us against problems, not each other. Optimize for each other's time and bring solutions, not just problems. You'll join a bench suited to your expertise, but we value cross-domain learning and interoperability across teams.

The office & perks. Waterfront office near Oracle Park, 2x free daily meals, unlimited snacks, company outings most months, and team offsites. Plus a vibrant community: cycling, soccer, figure skating, boxing, run clubs, reading clubs, martial arts, music, game nights.

## Compensation & Logistics

- 1099 (or W8-BEN) contract, 40 hrs/week, no end date
- Fully performance-based pay: $120K–$180K, uncapped upside. 2x quota = 2x pay.
- 2-4 week paid ramp - full OTE from day one
- Remote (globally), hybrid, or onsite in SF (onsite preferred)
- Work authorization: OPT visa holders only (not STEM Extension)
- Onsite perks: 2x free meals/day, waterfront office (China Basin), monthly parking (based on availability)
- Candidates with all of the above qualifications + proven management skills will be eligible for more senior positions

Interview Process

Timeline: We move fast: 8–12 days from submission to offer.

1. Intro Screen - Technical Recruiter
2. Take-Home Project - HackerRank
3. Technical Interview - Member of Technical Staff
4. Culture Interview - C-Suite (If applicable)
5. Offer

## About LatchBio

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: LatchBio builds and deploys frontier AI agents for biological data analysis, serving over 300 biopharma and R&D labs worldwide.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A; total funding $33.2M)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Alfredo Andere (CEO) and Kenny Workman (CTO)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Biotechnology Research / AI for biology
- Target customers: B2B – biopharma companies, academic R&D labs, and solution providers (kits, assays, instrument vendors)
- Mission: Deploy AI agents into real scientific work to accelerate data analysis and drug discovery

## Products & Services
- **Latch Platform**: A unified, serverless bioinformatics platform that lets scientists run, track, and debug pipelines via an SDK-generated no-code interface. Supports FastQ, CSV, H5AD, TIFF, and other formats. Agents can analyze messy real-world data.
- **Latch SDK**: Python toolchain to define serverless workflows and dynamically generate no-code UIs, removing cloud-infrastructure overhead.
- **agent.bio**: Public, interactive sandbox where frontier AI agents (e.g., Claude 4.8 Opus) analyze biological data. Supports 40+ solution providers.
- **benchmarks.bio**: Open, reproducible benchmarks measuring AI agent performance on spatial, single-cell, epigenomics, and preclinical pharmacology data. Includes papers like scBench-Long, TxBench-PP, etc.
- **White-labeled data analysis**: Solution providers can offer a branded, simpler analysis experience for their kits and services.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Annual revenue of ~$1.0M (LinkedIn estimate); total funding $33.2M
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Coatue, Lux Capital, Fifty Years, Haystack, Gelt, Backend Capital; individual investors include George Church, Jeff Dean, Hemant Taneja, Laura Deming, Alec Nielsen
- **Growth Signals**: 140% YoY headcount growth (from ~11 to 26 employees); 300+ biopharma and academic teams served; 40+ solution providers onboarded; recent publication of multiple benchmark papers (2025–2026)

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-mover in AI agents for biology**: Combines frontier LLMs with rigorous, verifiable benchmarks tailored to biological data (spatial, single-cell, epigenomics, pharmacology).
- **Open benchmarks & reproducibility**: All benchmarks (e.g., scBench-Long) are published openly, building trust and attracting top talent.
- **White-labeling for solution providers**: Allows kit and instrument vendors to offer AI-powered data analysis under their own brand, creating a network effect.
- **Tight integration with real lab workflows**: Supports common file formats and interfaces with existing pipelines, reducing friction for scientists.

## Strategic Focus
- Continue research and deployment of AI agents for biology, with emphasis on long-horizon tasks and messy real-world data.
- Expand the agent.bio sandbox to more solution providers and biopharma customers.
- Publish additional benchmarks (spatial, preclinical) to establish Latch as the standard evaluator of AI in biology.
- Grow engineering and bioinformatics teams to accelerate platform development.

## Why Work Here
- **Engineering culture**: Small, high-autonomy team where engineers own features end-to-end and see their code impact thousands of scientists the same day. Reading groups on category theory, immunology, and more.
- **Remote/hybrid policy**: Not explicitly stated, but headquarters in San Francisco; office parking subsidized. Likely in-office with flexibility.
- **Notable perks**: Unlimited PTO, 100%-subsidized platinum health plan (Cigna) + 75% for dependents, dental/vision, 401(k), ambitious equity, 12+ meals weekly, annual tech stipend, signing bonus, O-1 visa sponsorship, professional development.
- **Team size**: ~26 employees, with 65% in technical roles (engineering, bioinformatics, research). Flat structure with direct access to founders.
- **Growth trajectory**: Rapid headcount growth and expanding customer base offer career acceleration opportunities.

## Sources
1. [latch.bio](https://latch.bio/)
2. [latch.bio/about](https://latch.bio/about)
3. [linkedin.com/company/latchbio](https://www.linkedin.com/company/latchbio)
4. [cbinsights.com/company/latch-bio](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/latch-bio)
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/latchbio](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/latchbio)

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