Other - Good Fit for Melody at Convergent Research (Pasadena, CA)

Convergent Research· Pasadena, CA·2d ago

Role details

Work type

Onsite

Employment

Full-Time

Job description

If you resonated with our roadmap and didn't find a suitable role, tell us more about yourself here.

anandmuthusamy.substack.com

Why work at Convergent Research

Mission-driven: Direct, hands-on impact on solving foundational scientific bottlenecks rather than incremental product improvements.
Culture: Described as “mission control” — fast-paced, collaborative, technical. Leadership emphasizes pushing high-risk, high-reward projects.
Locations: On-site positions in Palo Alto (CA), Cambridge/Boston (MA), and Boulder (CO). Some roles are US- or UK-based.
Team composition: Small, senior-heavy centralized team (~20 core staff in Palo Alto) plus larger distributed FRO project teams (~164 total organization-wide). Significant cross-functional work across legal, finance, operations, and science.
Typical roles: Postdoctoral Research Scientists, Research Associates, Biosensing Engineers, Finance/Operations Managers, General Counsel.
Compensation transparency (IRS filing): CEO Adam Marblestone — $431,025; President Anastasia Gamick — $360,495; competitive nonprofit scientific salaries.
Notable perks: Working with world-class scientists and funders; contributions to genuinely public-good science; tax-deductible donation eligible organization.
Remote/hybrid: Mostly on-site (Boulder, Palo Alto, Cambridge); limited remote possibilities depending on role.

About Convergent Research

Company Overview

One-liner: Convergent Research is a nonprofit organization that launches and supports Focused Research Organizations (FROs) to build foundational technologies that unblock scientific progress.
Entity Type: Private Nonprofit (501(c)(3))
Headquarters: Palo Alto, California, United States
Founded: 2021
Founders: Adam Marblestone, Anastasia Gamick

Core Business

Primary industry: Scientific Research and Development Services (NAICS 5417)
Target customers: B2B — scientific researchers, universities, government agencies, and philanthropic funders; operates as a "mission control" launching public-good R&D projects.
Mission statement: “Spectacularly good futures are within reach, but only if we mind the gaps. Scientists need essential technologies to do the groundbreaking research all of us depend on.”

Products & Services

Convergent Research does not sell commercial products. Instead, it incubates Focused Research Organizations (FROs) – time-bound, technically ambitious nonprofit efforts designed to produce high-impact public goods. Current and past FROs/projects include:

Cultivarium: Developing tools for studying novel (previously unculturable) microorganisms.
E11 Bio (EVE Bio): Brain circuit mapping technologies.
Forest Neurotech: Neural technology and biosensing platforms.
Ocean CDR Atlas: Open-access tool for ocean-based carbon dioxide removal measurement.
Fundamental Development Gap Map (v1.0): A public web portal identifying bottlenecks holding back science.

Convergent Research provides shared operational support (legal, finance, HR, communications) across all FROs.

Market Standing

Valuation/Market Cap: Not applicable (nonprofit).
Annual Revenue (FY2024): $72.4 million (ProPublica IRS filing). Total revenue for FY2024 was $100.1 million.
Total Grant Funding Received: At least $25.1 million from Vanguard Charitable, $9.5 million from Probabilistic Computing Foundation, $8 million from The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation (latest filings).
Total Funding Raised: ~$2 million in disclosed grants (led by Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 2023); the vast majority comes from additional major philanthropic gifts not categorized as single-investor rounds.
Notable Partners/Funders: Advanced Research and Intervention Agency (ARIA, UK), Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation, Vanguard Charitable, Probabilistic Computing Foundation.
Growth Signals: 164 employees (as of latest CauseIQ data, up from ~23 on LinkedIn); headquarter presence in Palo Alto, Cambridge (MA), and Boulder (CO); expanded into the UK via a collaboration with ARIA (“FROST UK”); 15 active job postings with 25% month-over-month posting growth.

Competitive Advantages

Novel institutional model: Focused Research Organizations (FROs) fill a gap between traditional academia and for-profit startups — targeted, time-boxed, public-good missions.
Lean central infrastructure: Shared operational support lets FRO scientists focus purely on technical breakthroughs, avoiding administrative overhead.
High-caliber scientific network: Leaders include senior scientists from MIT, Caltech, King’s College London, and CMU as grantees/collaborators.
Access to major philanthropic capital: Partners with some of the largest climate and science foundations globally.

Strategic Focus

Geographic expansion: Formal partnership with ARIA in the UK to launch FROs abroad (“FROST UK”).
Gap mapping: Releasing and refining the Fundamental Development Gap Map to systematically identify the biggest bottlenecks in science.
Scaling the FRO model: Adding new FROs in ocean CDR, neuroscience, and molecular engineering; hiring Founders in Residence to spin up new efforts.
Public data as product: Committed to releasing open datasets and protocols (e.g., drug–target assay data, Lean proof library) as public goods.

Sources

Job description

Why work at Convergent Research

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