---
title: 'Member of Technical Staff,  Intelligence - Functoional Genomics at Substrate Bio'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-intelligence-functoional-genomics-substrate-bio-london-hc5g0evaggx7'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-14'
---

# Member of Technical Staff,  Intelligence - Functoional Genomics at Substrate Bio

- **Company:** Substrate Bio
- **Location:** London, United Kingdom
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-09
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/substrate-bio/3aec75bd-dc98-4a03-96be-049975f3d0de

## Job description

LOCATION: King’s Cross, London · PATTERN: Hybrid, with regular time in the lab

The opportunity We’re a stealth startup in AI and bio, building infrastructure for data generation. The team is small and elite, the problems are hard, and the foundations are being laid right now. You’d help write them from the first line, with real ownership and a direct line to the founders. This role owns the analysis of our functional genomics data. You would be the main computational partner to the scientists who run our perturbation screens, from how a screen is designed to which hits we call and how we show the evidence for them.

## About us

AI for biology has a data problem. The data that matters most doesn’t exist yet, so we’re building the infrastructure to produce it, with quality and traceability built in from day one. We’re in stealth and heads-down on execution. We’ll share more about what we’re building once you’ve spoken with the team.

## The role

You will join the intelligence team and own the analysis of our functional genomics data, working day to day with the scientists who design and run the screens. You will work with them from experimental design through to picking hits, and build the pipelines that let the analysis keep up as screening throughput grows. This is a hands-on role with real influence over how we generate and use our data. The data is multimodal. Single-cell and pooled CRISPR screens are read out by sequencing, by Cell Painting and other high-content imaging, and by proteomics, often on the same perturbations. Much of the job is making those readouts agree with each other, with statistics that hold up when a screen crosses several factors at once. You will work with the software team, who own how data is captured and stored. You build the analysis on top of that, and you own its quality.

## Your first 90 days

## FIRST 30 DAYS

◆ Learn how the scientists design and run the screens, and what each readout produces, from sequencing to imaging and proteomics. ◆ Review the analysis and QC that exist for CRISPR screens and Cell Painting, and set out what is missing.

## DAYS 30 TO 60

◆ Own the analysis of the first single-cell and pooled CRISPR screens you work on: QC, guide assignment, differential expression and modelling of perturbation effects. ◆ Build the first image-based profiling pipeline for Cell Painting, from feature extraction and normalisation to phenotypic scoring. ◆ Advise on the design of upcoming screens, covering power, replication, library coverage, plate layout and batch effects.

## DAYS 60 TO 90

◆ Integrate proteomic, transcriptomic and imaging readouts of the same perturbations, with statistics that hold up for multi-factor designs. ◆ Make the pipelines reproducible and versioned, with the software team, so they scale as throughput grows. ◆ Present results with their uncertainty and QC to the scientists and to leadership.

## Who you are

You have a background in genomics, and you have analysed real screening or single-cell data and built things other people relied on. That might have been in a functional genomics or screening group in biotech or pharma, an academic lab, a core facility, or a computational group that worked closely with one. Nobody arrives with every part of this role. If you are strong in most of it and quick to learn the rest, we want to hear from you. You like working next to the bench. Much of the value is in the conversations with the scientists before a screen runs, and you can explain a result to someone who was not in the room. You write code other people can run, and you care how a result reads to the person receiving it. We do not hire people into boxes. This role will stretch past its description, sometimes into the lab and sometimes into conversations about how our data is used. Early hires here are expected to pick up what is in front of them.

## MUST HAVE

◆ A PhD, or a master’s with two to three years of relevant experience, in genomics, bioinformatics, computational biology, statistics or a related field. ◆ Strong Python or R, with good engineering habits such as Git, code review and reproducible workflows, and working with coding agents. ◆ Hands-on single-cell RNA-seq analysis, for example with Scanpy or Seurat, including MEMBER OF TECHNICAL STAFF, INTELLIGENCE (FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS) CRISPR screen QC such as guide assignment and knockdown efficiency. ◆ Statistical and machine learning methods on biological data, including linear and mixed models, multiple testing, and handling batch effects and confounders. ◆ Working closely with wet-lab scientists, and explaining results clearly to people outside your field.

## NICE TO HAVE

◆ Perturb-seq or combinatorial-barcoding single-cell RNA-seq, such as Parse Evercode. ◆ Image-based profiling, such as CellProfiler or pycytominer, or deep-learning image analysis. ◆ Multi-omic integration methods. ◆ Workflow managers such as Nextflow or Snakemake, containers such as Docker, and cloud or HPC computing such as AWS.

## Why this is unusual

Most screening analysis happens after the fact, on files from a lab someone else runs, with little record of how each plate was handled. Here you sit with the scientists who run the screens, you can ask how a plate was handled and get an answer, and your analysis goes out with the data. It also crosses readouts that usually live in separate teams. Sequencing, imaging and proteomics from the same perturbations come through one small team, and the analysis has to hold up across all of them. Some people find that energising; some find it outside their lane. It’s worth knowing in advance which one you are.

## How we work

The role is based in London, at our lab and office in King’s Cross. Time in person with the scientists matters for this work. The wider founding team is distributed across London, New York and Europe and travels, so you will work with people who are not always in the building. We work in the open. Decisions are written down and work happens in Slack. The whole company meets once a week at the start of the week, and there is a regular offsite. Each person owns their area and makes the call inside it, and we will expect that of you early rather than late. UK benefits are 30 days of annual leave plus public holidays, a pension with a 10% employer contribution, and Bupa private health cover. More is added as the team grows.

The team you will join You will report into the intelligence team. You will work most closely with the functional genomics scientists who design and run the screens, and with the software team. You will be the first person on the intelligence team whose focus is functional genomics data, joining a small team.

Our process Our process has four stages. A short screening call about the role and the practicalities. A behavioural interview about how you work and what you value, run from the same template for every candidate. A technical stage built on a real analysis problem from our lab, not a puzzle. You spend a few hours writing up how you would approach it, using the tools you would use on the job, coding agents included, with a short note on the decisions you made. We care about judgement more than hours, so a focused answer beats an exhaustive one. We then go through it with you in person. Then references, aimed at whatever we still want to understand. If you are not sure whether you are a fit, apply anyway. We would rather read it and decide. We are an equal opportunity employer. We make hiring decisions on merit, scope-fit, and the strength of the working relationship we expect to build with each hire. Applications welcome from candidates of any background.

## About Substrate Bio

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Substrate Bio is building a network of fully autonomous wet laboratories that produce the high-quality, structured data that foundation models in biology are bottlenecked on.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Pre-Seed stage, funded by a combination of venture funding and government grants)
- **Headquarters**: London, United Kingdom (King’s Cross)
- **Founded**: 2023 (Incorporated June 13, 2023)
- **Founders**: Mostafa ElSayed (CEO, also founder of Automata), Oli Hoy (formerly VP Customer Experience at Automata), Alexey Morgunov (AI Scientist co-founder), and a founding biology lead joining shortly.

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Deep Tech, Biotech / Life Sciences, AI-driven biology, Lab Automation
- **Target customers**: B2B; foundation model labs, global pharmaceutical companies, and AI-driven biology researchers.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To become the critical infrastructure layer for AI-driven biological discovery by building a network of autonomous wet labs that operate in a closed loop with foundation models.

## Products & Services
- **Autonomous Wet Lab Platform**: A network of fully autonomous wet laboratories (first node in King’s Cross, London) where pipetting robots run continuously, executing experiments end-to-end with no human intervention. The labs return structured data within hours.
- **Closed-Loop Integration with Foundation Models**: The platform is designed so that foundation models design the experiments and read the results in real time. Better data improves the models, and better models design better experiments.
- **Token-Based Usage Pricing**: Access to the platform is sold on a usage basis via a token-based model that maps physical inputs (instrument time, materials, compute, complexity) onto a cleaner customer-facing unit of value.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (likely pre-seed/seed stage, funded by founders and undisclosed angels).
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding — Not publicly disclosed, but funded in parallel by venture funding and government grants (including ARIA and DSIT grants).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly named. The company is spinning out of Automata, the UK lab automation company.
- **Growth Signals**: Active hiring in 2026 (Head of Functional Genomics, Chemistry Principal Scientist, Financial Controller). Targeting a team of ~32 people by the end of Q1 2027. First lab node opening in King’s Cross, London, with several integrated workcells and two scientific verticals online by mid-2027.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Autonomous, Not a Cloud Lab or CRO**: Substrate is building a fully autonomous lab platform with closed-loop integration, differentiating itself from traditional cloud labs or contract research organizations (CROs).
- **Data Quality for AI**: The core thesis is that the bottleneck in AI-driven biology is high-quality, structured experimental data. Substrate’s automated labs are designed to produce this data at scale, creating a unique moat.
- **Open Access Model**: Researchers access the platform through an API with no minimum commitment and no exclusivity, lowering the barrier to entry for AI labs.
- **Deep Integration with Foundation Models**: The platform is built from the ground up to operate in a closed loop with AI models, not as an afterthought.

## Strategic Focus
- **Building the First Node**: The immediate priority is opening the first autonomous lab node in King’s Cross, London, and getting two scientific verticals online by mid-2027.
- **Scaling the Team**: Aggressively hiring senior scientific and operational talent to build the experimental protocols and finance function.
- **Commercial Model**: Developing and stress-testing a token-based usage pricing model that translates physical lab capacity into customer cost.
- **Grant and Venture Funding**: Managing parallel ARIA and DSIT grants alongside a venture round to fund capital-intensive lab infrastructure.

## Why Work Here
- **High-Impact, Foundational Work**: This is a deeply unusual finance and engineering problem — building the infrastructure layer for AI biology from scratch. The work directly addresses a critical bottleneck in the field.
- **Founding Team & Culture**: The company is led by four co-founders with deep expertise in lab automation (Automata), AI, and biology. The culture is described as hybrid with a strong in-person presence (at least three days a week in King’s Cross).
- **Unique Finance Role**: The Financial Controller role, for example, is described as "the single highest-impact piece of finance work in the company," blending finance, product, and pricing work.
- **Growth Trajectory**: The company is scaling from 4 co-founders to ~32 people by Q1 2027, offering early employees significant ownership and influence.
- **Location**: Based in King’s Cross, London, a major tech and life sciences hub.

## Sources
1. [substratebio.ai](https://substratebio.ai/)
2. [Companies House - Substrate Bio Ltd](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/17191596)
3. [Companies House - Officers](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/17191596/officers)
4. [AshbyHQ - Financial Controller Job Posting](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/substrate-bio/a440fcca-aa12-42e6-9997-611463f8ddf4)
5. [AshbyHQ - Chemistry Principal Scientist Job Posting](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/substrate-bio/7d15e5f9-3f0b-4ad6-abce-c83bf4ed8eb1)
6. [BeBee - Head of Functional Genomics Job Posting](https://bebee.com/gb/jobs/head-of-functional-genomics-substrate-bio-london--theirstack-688561239)
7. [Startuply.vc - Substrate Bio Profile](https://startuply.vc/startup/substrate-bio-u76ba)
8. [Startuply.vc - Article on Substrate Bio Hiring](https://startuply.vc/article/substrate-bio-is-hiring-for-a-fully-automated-wet-lab-that-doesn-t-yet-exist-ioy8to)

## Other roles at Substrate Bio

- [Member of Scientific Staff, Computational Chemistry](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-scientific-staff-computational-chemistry-substrate-bio-london-gnvrza03pbc9) — London, United Kingdom
- [Member of Scientific Staff, Cell Line Development](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-scientific-staff-cell-line-development-substrate-bio-london-dpem152a9trk) — London, United Kingdom
- [Protein Production Scientist, Biologics](https://feeny.ai/job/protein-production-scientist-biologics-substrate-bio-london-j9tks50dnee6) — London, United Kingdom
- [Member of Technical Staff, Intelligence](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-intelligence-substrate-bio-london-x22edfw5dq03) — London, United Kingdom
- [Member of Technical Staff, Software](https://feeny.ai/job/member-of-technical-staff-software-substrate-bio-london-1ap71r57hp67) — London, United Kingdom
- [Lab Operations Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/lab-operations-manager-substrate-bio-london-6hqtcygvvv2m) — London, United Kingdom
- [Molecular Characterisation Scientist, Biologics](https://feeny.ai/job/molecular-characterisation-scientist-biologics-substrate-bio-london-mtfkrd1s2mqt) — London, United Kingdom