Grants Lead

FutureHouse is a nonprofit AI-for-science research lab in San Francisco. Our mission is to build AI systems that can scale scientific research and accelerate the pace of discovery, so humanity can proceed as quickly as possible to find cures for disease, solutions for climate change, and other species-accelerating technologies. At Future House, we're not just envisioning the future; we're building it.

We're looking for a enterprising Grants Lead to create and execute on our fundraising and grants strategy at FutureHouse. You will initially focus primarily on sourcing and applying for government funding while also developing philanthropic partnerships and looking for other innovative revenue streams.

As our ideal candidate, you will use your scientific expertise to deeply understand FutureHouse’s mission and the details of our projects (like Aviary and PaperQA2), as well as your grants management experience, to identify and write high-value grant applications and funding proposals. You will also independently build and maintain relationships with a range of funding partners.

This is a ground-floor opportunity to build a critical function from scratch, with potential to grow and lead our future grants team. We're flexible on seniority level and will shape the role around the right candidate's experience and vision.

This role is based in our San Francisco, CA office. We are also open to remote candidates so long as they are based in the US.

In this Role, you will:

• Grant Sourcing and Management: Identify, apply for, and secure funding from government agencies, private foundations, and other grant-giving organizations. Have a network of contacts (i.e. at government agencies) to ensure we are taking advantage of the best grant opportunities available to us — know the space well, understand what the grantors are looking for and build an application specific to that using your insider info/knowledge.
• Grant Post-Award Management: Tracking and managing grants once received; including submitting progress and financial reports, tracking project costs, ensuring compliance with grantor policies (e.g., data protections, conflicts of interest, equipment purchases), and reporting patents and publications. 
• Funding Strategy: Develop and execute a comprehensive funding strategy, targeting public and private grant systems, philanthropic networks, and other potential funding avenues to cultivate, solicit, and steward their support; tracking engagement strategies, solicitations and progress.
• Scientific Grant Writing: Use your science background to work with our technical staff to develop a deep understanding of our work, such that you can develop compelling proposals with minimal burden on our science and AI teams.
• Responding to Bespoke Opportunities: Work with FutureHouse exec to respond quickly to promising and sometimes unusual opportunities, for example if small foundations or individuals show interest in a project, we would aim to send them a proposal as soon as possible after meeting.
• [Desired but not mandatory] Philanthropic Advising: Expand donor relationships by identifying and engaging new donors, guiding them in aligning their philanthropic goals with FutureHouse’s mission. Delivering an outstanding experience for our partners. This includes developing a strategy, structure, and cadence for regular reporting on our grant-funded activities to communicate to donors the impact of their funding, and working with program staff to translate grant updates into communications for donors.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Partner closely with our scientific teams to stay informed on ongoing projects, ensuring alignment between funding efforts and organizational priorities.

Requirements:

• Scientific Expertise: Advanced degree (PhD strongly preferred) in a relevant field (e.g., biology, chemistry, computer science, or physics), with a strong understanding of AI/ML and its broader applications — you must be able to communicate about our work with minimal input from staff scientists, researchers and engineers (though you will have a lot of support in getting up to speed on our work).
• Grant Writing Experience: Proven track record of writing and securing competitive government and private grants, including agencies like DARPA, NSF, or AISF.
• Funding Strategy: Demonstrated experience developing and executing successful fundraising strategies, including familiarity with government grant systems and private foundations.
• Communication Skills: Ability to translate complex scientific work into clear, persuasive narratives for funders and stakeholders.
• Proactive Leadership: Demonstrated effectiveness in prospect identification, relationship building, and solicitation with high integrity and trustworthiness.
• Adaptability: Willingness to travel to San Francisco for team events and spend the first few weeks on-site for onboarding. This position also likely requires some business travel and occasional work on nights and weekends in response to high-end donor needs.

Nice to have:

• Experience bridging academia and industry in fundraising roles.
• Grant making experience at funding organisation.
• Established connections with philanthropic networks in science, AI, or innovation.
• International fundraising experience, including familiarity with global grants and foundations.
• Familiarity with philanthropic organizations active in science, AI, or innovation.
• Experience having worked as a grantor at a funding organization is a plus.

Our culture

• Everyone who works here is insanely smart, but low ego. We are a small team achieving great things — and we want to achieve even greater things in the future. We keep standards high and work on the most important problem we can be working on. Sometimes that means learning new things and working outside of your wheelhouse.
• We are working on problems that are way more interesting than what you'll find anywhere else. Why sell ads or optimize buttons when you can solve science and make breakthrough discoveries in basic research and make and test hypothesis humans haven’t previously thought of?
• We have a tight-knit and collaborative research culture. We really value autonomy and being able to drive forward your own projects with the support of resources and collaborators, minus the bureaucracy.
• We have a “20% projects principle” where staff are encouraged to spend 20% of their time working on a passion project (so long as they’re using FutureHouse tools to do so)
• We aim to publish our work where possible.
• We are fiercely committed to a flat structure, team science, and individual contributions: we believe that the way to enable discoveries is to enable small, integrated teams of outstanding biologists and AI researchers to iterate rapidly towards ‘big-if-true’ ideas
• We work to flexibly hire the best talent in the world and to enable that talent to pursue their best ideas.

Role details and benefits

• Time zones and location: This role is based in our San Francisco, CA office [or] This position is remote.
• Compensation: The base compensation for this role is $160,000 - $250,000
  • We are happy to sponsor U.S. work authorization if necessary.
• If you are relocating to work out of our San Francisco office we will support your relocation costs
• Benefits
  • Excellent health, dental and vision insurance
  • 401(k)
  • Flexible time off
  • Daily lunches at the office
  • A very cool office and events space (can be used for happy hours and movie night)