Head of People

at Evolutionary Scale (View all jobs)

New York, NY // San Francisco, CA, United States

EvolutionaryScale’s mission is to develop artificial intelligence to understand biology for the benefit of human health and society, through open, safe, and responsible research, and in partnership with the scientific community. Over the next ten years AI will transform biological design, making molecules and entire cells programmable. We will develop the foundation models for biology that enable this.

To continue to move the field forward in this emerging area, we prioritize individuals who have shown excellence and creativity in their respective domains over specific domain expertise.

Our team does both deep research and product development, not only building the frontier biological AI models in the field but also putting them in the hands of the researchers at the forefront of the life sciences. This fundamentally requires elite engineers and scientists working together to solve big research and product challenges. We are building a world class multi-disciplinary team spanning AI research, engineering, biology research, and business roles, which requires strong communication and collaboration across roles.

The EvolutionaryScale team is based in two locations: San Francisco and New York. We believe in flexibility around work schedules and locations, but expect that our team members will work half of the days or more of most weeks from one of our two offices.

The Role

This is a first boots on the ground hybrid role spanning recruiting and HR in a mission-driven high growth startup. We expect recruiting to be 60-70% of the job responsibilities in year 1, but shift more towards HR over time.

• Recruiting
  • Run the recruiting process, from sourcing to coordinating interviews to making sure all candidates move to the pipeline efficiently. Supervise the vendors to whom we outsource some parts
  • Improve and scale the recruiting process
  • Strategic partner for leadership in defining roles, sourcing strategies, and hiring decisions for critical early leadership positions.
• HR and organizational design. Work with company leadership to:
  • Help guide transition from flat structure to more structured organization
  • Help design and introduce a lightweight performance review process, employee engagement survey and initiatives
  • Establish necessary HR policies and ensure compliance, leveraging PEO vendor
  • Stay up to date on market and compensation benchmarks, develop compensation and benefits strategies
• Flexible mindset required; we expect someone in this role to be eager to temporarily wear other operational hats as the complexity of our operations grows.

These are immediate responsibilities for year 1. We expect this role to grow and scale with the company.

Preferred qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Biology, Biotechnology, Computer Science, or a related field. Advanced degree preferred.
• Experience: Experience working at a startup, scaling from early stage (<50) to hundreds of employees. Minimum of 5 years of recruiting or HR experience (preferably both). Recruiting experience with a focus on roles in machine learning research. Proven track record of placing top AI talent
• Technical Knowledge: Understanding of machine learning concepts and/or biotechnology research. Ability to assess technical skills and knowledge in these areas.
• Communication Skills: Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Ability to engage and influence candidates and stakeholders at all levels.
• Interpersonal Skills: Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build and maintain relationships with candidates and hiring managers.
• Adaptability: Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. Flexibility to adapt to changing priorities and take initiative to drive the recruitment process.