Founding Scientist, Population Genetics; Platform Lead

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We’re working with a well-funded, stealth‑stage biotech company rethinking how human genetics is used to drive disease prevention - not just treatment. The company is building a genetics‑first platform to identify naturally occurring protective and loss‑of‑function alleles and translate those insights into gene‑editing interventions.

This is not a narrow analysis role or a mature‑platform position. This is an early, foundational hire for someone who wants to own how causal human genetics is done inside a company from day one.

• Own and build the company’s human genetics and computational genomics engine from first principles
• Design and run large‑scale analyses across biobanks and cohorts (GWAS, rare variant, burden testing, founder populations)
• Reason carefully about population structure, penetrance, confounding, and causality to determine what is truly actionable
• Use human genetics to prioritize, de‑prioritize, or kill biological hypotheses before downstream investment
• Develop internal standards for genetic evidence that guide gene editing and functional validation efforts
• Operate hands‑on early, then help shape and scale a small, elite technical team over time
• Work closely with experimental and gene‑editing scientists to ensure genetics remains the decision anchor

• Deep, hands‑on experience in population‑scale human genetics and statistical genetics
• Strong applied statistics instincts; comfortable making irreversible analytical decisions
• Experience working with rare variants, loss‑of‑function alleles, and/or human knockouts
• Builder mindset – comfortable in ambiguous, early‑stage environments with minimal existing infrastructure
• Preference for rigor over hype; first‑principles thinking over buzzwords
• Founder or ancestry‑specific population studies
• Experience setting evidence standards used by downstream biology or drug programs
• Exposure to functional genomics, CRISPR, or gene‑editing workflows
• Prior work at high‑bar genetics organizations (industry or academic) known for depth, not flash

• Bay Area–based team;
  On‑Site a hard requirement
• Small, senior, highly technical founding group
• Early hires expected to operate with significant autonomy and ownership

If you’re excited by the idea of using human genetics as the primary decision‑making engine — and want real ownership in building a platform that could redefine disease prevention — we’d love to speak with you.