AI Biologist - Microscopy

The role

You will act as the scientific authority on ground truth to test if AI agents can reason like expert microscopists. You will build tasks, curate image datasets, and build analysis pipelines in Python to create benchmarks across cell biology, tissue, and disease.

What you will do

• Define expert reasoning for imaging questions and write gold-standard answers
• Design realistic scenarios across the imaging workflow
• Curate image datasets across modalities
• Build analysis pipelines in Python including deep-learning segmentation
• Partner with software engineers to turn judgment into new workflows
• Test whether agents distinguish true signal from artifact
• Adjudicate ambiguous images
• Test whether agents choose the right imaging modality, resolution, and unit of analysis
• Interrogate agent reasoning step by step
• Score agent confidence

Required qualifications

• PhD in cell biology, bioimage analysis, pathology, or a related field; or an MD with pathology training
• Senior, hands-on imaging experience
• Direct experience with image segmentation tools such as CellProfiler, Cellpose, StarDist, QuPath, ilastik, napari, or Fiji
• Deep expertise in at least one area (bioimage analysis, cell biology, or histopathology) and working fluency across the others
• Strong command of experimental design, image quantification, and statistics
• Daily use of Claude, Cursor, or similar agents
• Confidence to overrule an AI agent when the evidence demands it
• Ability to calibrate confidence and communicate uncertainty

Nice to have

• electron microscopy, pathology, or pharmacology experience (e.g., pharmacodynamic or drug-uptake imaging assays)
• familiarity with public resources such as the Image Data Resource (IDR), BioImage Archive, Human Protein Atlas, Cell Painting Gallery, or TCGA whole-slide images

Benefits

• Health, dental, vision: 100% covered for you, 50% for dependents
• 401(k) (no match)
• PTO: 12 days to start, more as you're promoted
• Catered lunch and dinner and unlimited snacks (onsite SF)
• Company outings most months, team off-sites, and a community for various activities

Before you apply

• If your profile matches, we’ll send you a take-home project
• Take-home project (HackerRank)
• Technical interview with a Member of Technical Staff (pod lead)
• Culture interview with our C-suite
• Background check, once you accept

About the company

Latch builds rigorous scientific benchmarks for AI agents across biology. They work with frontier labs and pharma to measure whether agents can handle real biological workflows.