Founding Scientist / Co-Founder

Job description

About the Role This is a rare opportunity to join as a Founding Scientist / Co-Founder at an early-stage startup at the intersection of AI and wet-lab biology, operating within the aerospace and defense sector. You will combine hands-on biological expertise with computational thinking to shape the company's scientific strategy and core technology — bridging laboratory work with AI-driven workflows to accelerate discovery. This role is on-site in Germany . Candidates must be eligible to work in Germany without visa sponsorship. What You'll Do Define and lead the scientific vision and research roadmap for early-stage AI + wet-lab products. Design and execute key experiments in molecular biology, biochemistry, or genomics to validate models and assays. Collaborate closely with engineers and ML researchers to translate experimental needs into computational requirements. Implement and oversee lab automation and data pipelines to scale experiments and improve reproducibility. Prototype computational tools and analyses; contribute code or notebooks integrating wet-lab data with models. Mentor and recruit early scientific hires; establish laboratory best practices and safety standards. Help navigate sector-specific constraints unique to aerospace and defense applications. What We're Looking For Required: PhD in Biotechnology, Genomics, Biology, or a closely related field. Senior-level research experience in molecular biology, biochemistry, genomics, biotech, or equivalent industry background. Demonstrated experience applying AI/ML to biological data (computational biology, bioinformatics, or similar). Experience in or familiarity with aerospace or defense domains, including an understanding of sector-specific constraints. Comfortable with computational thinking and coding; experience with ML is a strong plus. Must be eligible to work in Germany without visa sponsorship. Nice to Have: Prior experience at AI-for-biology companies, biotech startups, or similar industry environments. Hands-on lab automation experience. Prior founder experience or direct experience scaling early-stage teams and operations. Entrepreneurial mindset with comfort navigating ambiguity in a fast-moving startup environment. Strong cross-functional communication and collaboration skills. Ideal Background: Research or training at a leading institution or university, with a track record that comb…