---
title: 'Staff Scientist at OXMAN'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-scientist-oxman-new-york-9fanr9kkxy1c'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-16'
---

# Staff Scientist at OXMAN

- **Company:** OXMAN
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-22
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-16
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/oxman/d5c83162-bf9e-4048-879f-2c00a442313c

## 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.

## About OXMAN

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: OXMAN is a design company fusing design, technology, and biology to invent multi-scale products and environments that empower synergy between Nature and humanity.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Startup/Early Stage)
- **Headquarters**: New York, New York, United States (787 Eleventh Ave)
- **Founded**: 2024 (public launch)
- **Founders**: Neri Oxman

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Design Services, Biotechnology, Materials Science, Architecture
- Target customers: B2B (corporate partners, industry clients), Academia, and Nature as a "co-client"
- Mission or purpose statement: To shift from human-centric design to Nature-centric design, creating design solutions by, for, and with Nature while advancing humanity. The company aims to heal the rift between Nature and humanity.

## Products & Services
- **O° Shoe (The O Shoe)**: A 100% biodegradable shoe made without petrochemicals, producing zero microplastics. Unveiled in October 2024. Represents the company's platform technology applied to consumer goods.
- **Platform Technologies**: R&D arm that invents platform technologies enabling design and production "by, for, and with Nature." These platforms can be applied across industries and scales—from consumer goods to urban plans, pharmaceuticals to apparel, organisms to rockets.
- **Design & Consulting Services**: Activist design practice that partners with industry and academia to implement Nature-centric values across design, manufacturing, construction, and operational practices.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding — Not publicly disclosed
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Goodman Group (partnership to explore design for ecosystem biodiversity and resilience), Foster + Partners (designed the OXMAN lab in NYC)
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount of ~24 employees (+4.5% YoY growth); active job postings; public launch in October 2024 with significant press coverage; first product (O° Shoe) unveiled; partnership with major real estate group Goodman Group

## Competitive Advantages
- **Founder & Brand**: Founded by Neri Oxman, a world-renowned designer, architect, and former MIT Media Lab professor, giving the company immense credibility and a powerful network.
- **Interdisciplinary Approach**: Uniquely combines hardware, software, and "wetware" (biology) in a single practice, integrating an atelier, workshop, and lab.
- **Nature-Centric Design Philosophy**: A radical differentiator positioning Nature as a "co-client," moving beyond sustainability toward regeneration and synergy.
- **Platform Technologies**: Cross-scale, hierarchical design tools that can be applied across multiple industries, creating a defensible IP moat.
- **First Mover in Biodegradable Materials**: The O° Shoe is a tangible proof point of their platform's capability, addressing the massive microplastics problem.

## Strategic Focus
- **Platform Development**: Scaling their platform technologies for broader industry application across multiple sectors.
- **Partnerships**: Leading corporate partners in implementing Nature-centric values across their operations (e.g., Goodman Group).
- **Product Commercialization**: Bringing the O° Shoe and other bio-integrated products to market.
- **Talent Acquisition**: Building a world-class interdisciplinary team of designers, engineers, scientists, and makers.
- **Thought Leadership**: Advancing the "Nature-centric design" philosophy as a new paradigm for the design and construction industries.

## Why Work Here
- **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.

## Sources
1. [oxman.com](https://oxman.com/company)
2. [oxman.com](https://oxman.com/mission)
3. [oxman.com](https://oxman.com/careers)
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/oxman)
5. [prnewswire.com](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oxman-unveils-the-o-shoe---a-100-biodegradable-shoe-made-without-petrochemicals-producing-zero-microplastics-302290648.html)
6. [prnewswire.com](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/neri-oxman-launches-oxman-a-revolutionary-practice-transforming-design-generation-manufacturing-and-construction-for-the-simultaneous-benefit-of-humans-and-the-natural-environment-302264818.html)
7. [fosterandpartners.com](https://www.fosterandpartners.com/news/foster-partners-and-neri-oxman-complete-the-groundbreaking-design-and-innovation-lab-for-oxman)
8. [goodman.com](https://www.goodman.com/news/2024/oxman-partnership)

## Other roles at OXMAN

- [Senior Accountant](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-accountant-oxman-new-york-wqxf2g9zq4q3) — New York, NY
- [Prototype/Fabrication Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/prototype-fabrication-specialist-oxman-new-york-nbw5tsf17thr) — New York, NY
- [Plant Synthetic Biologist](https://feeny.ai/job/plant-synthetic-biologist-oxman-new-york-7a33g80cgs4w) — New York, NY
- [Computational Designer — Hybrid Living Textiles](https://feeny.ai/job/computational-designer-hybrid-living-textiles-oxman-new-york-3cde0rn1fksg) — New York, NY
- [Senior Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-oxman-new-york-fgbrsq0s70zk) — New York, NY
- [Senior Manager, People](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manager-people-oxman-new-york-1ytxv2s36w6g) — New York, NY
- [Future Talent](https://feeny.ai/job/future-talent-oxman-new-york-v4771yrvd83c) — New York, NY
- [Computational Designer](https://feeny.ai/job/computational-designer-oxman-new-york-cfz7jdtggk9w) — New York, NY
- [Machine Learning Research Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/machine-learning-research-engineer-oxman-new-york-hawdr0ckhw70) — New York, NY
- [Computational Ecologist](https://feeny.ai/job/computational-ecologist-oxman-new-york-3mym7zb0rvph) — New York, NY