OXMAN

Staff Scientist at OXMAN (New York, NY)

OXMAN· New York, NY·

Role details

Work type
Onsite
Employment
Full-Time
Level
Staff

Job description

OXMAN

We are a design company advancing the unification of top-down design engineering and bottom-up biological growth to mutually empower Nature and Humanity. Our team operates at the intersection of design, technology, biology, ecology, and engineering. We build systems where Nature and humans co-create as one.

Role Overview

We are actively seeking researchers for our lab - synthetic biologists, bioengineers, plant scientists, materials scientists, microbiologists, and anyone who has a passion for unusual, interdisciplinary research is encouraged to apply. Examples of projects these researchers could work on include biosensor development, integrating biological components into physical systems, adapting organisms to unusual or extreme environments, novel transformation methods, novel fabrication processes, or studying what extremophiles can teach us about our built environment. Outcomes of these projects are expected to run the gamut from scientific publications to speculative or early-stage products/processes to art objects that simply prove something is possible. If you are an interdisciplinary thinker who engineers living systems toward new functions, designs at the boundary where biology becomes material, or translates biology into the built environment, we want to know you.

Key Responsibilities

  • Lead and/or collaborate on research projects that span a variety of fields of study.
  • Nurture and augment the scientific vision of OXMAN, upholding core design principles and ensuring the highest and most innovative quality of work
  • Communicate ideas, work, and progress clearly, including by engaging in team meetings, presentations, and other creative communication outlets
  • Maintain high-quality documentation of scientific output and research in the forms of written reports, electronic lab notebooks, internal databases, code comments, etc.

Required Experience

  • PhD in a relevant field

Essential Qualities

  • Ability to thrive and prioritize in a self-directed environment
  • Excellent project management skills, organizational skills, and attention to detail
  • Strong commitment to the team; maintains positive working relationships with people from diverse personal and professional backgrounds
  • Embodies ethics and integrity in all work with impeccable scientific integrity, respecting both company and broader community policies in all conduct

IMPORTANT NOTE

Instead of a cover letter, please pitch us on a potential project you’d be interested in working on. Inspiration for this project can be taken from anything - your previous work, our previous work, a problem you see in the world, etc. We aren’t going to hold you to this idea specifically, but we want a broad sense of the goals you’d like to achieve and the approach you’d take to get there. (1 page max) Applications without this document uploaded will not be considered.

Why work at OXMAN

  • Mission-Driven Culture: A clear, bold vision to heal the rift between Nature and humanity. Work is framed as a "calling" with profound impact.
  • Interdisciplinary Excellence: Opportunity to work at the intersection of design, engineering, biology, and computation with a world-class team.
  • Creative & Intellectual Freedom: Emphasis on taking risks, exploring "impossible" challenges, and pursuing profound questions.
  • Values: The company culture emphasizes integrity, empathy, mediation of dichotomies (design/R&D, made/grown), balancing the timely and timeless, and pursuing the profound.
  • Work Environment: Based in a first-of-its-kind atelier, workshop, and lab in New York City, designed by Foster + Partners.
  • Team Composition: Small (~24 people), highly specialized team with backgrounds from MIT Media Lab, top universities, and leading design/tech firms. Emphasis on self-direction and collaboration across disciplines.
  • Location: New York City (HQ) with presence in France. Hybrid/office policy not explicitly stated but likely in-person given the lab/workshop nature.

Application questions