Software Engineer, AI Safety and Biosecurity
SecureBio
📍Remote (Global) 🕔 Full Time
💰$80–$150/hr 🔄 Rolling Applications
SecureBio seeks a Software Engineer to help scale and systematize the way we run evaluations of frontier AI systems, with a focus on biosecurity and misuse risk. This work has already made an impact: our biosecurity evaluations have been publicly cited in model cards from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, and featured in xAI's Risk Management Framework.
As a Software Engineer, you will own running our evaluation suite on new and emerging AI models. This includes ensuring that mature evaluations are correctly configured and run through our Inspect platform, maintaining and updating our dashboard of results, and providing structured results for written analyses and reports.
This role is an opportunity to contribute directly to SecureBio’s mission of reducing catastrophic biological risks by ensuring that our biosecurity assessments of frontier models are robust, reproducible, and timely. Over time, you will gain experience across our evaluation ecosystem and play a key role in maintaining reliable systems that scale with new models and collaborations.
Responsibilities
Running evaluations
Run SecureBio's panel of biosecurity evaluations on frontier AI models using Inspect AI, an open-source Python framework, for both pre-release testing and SecureBio’s web dashboard.
Identify opportunities to improve automation, efficiency, and robustness of the evaluation pipeline.
Refining evaluations
Flag anomalies, unexpected model behaviors, and potential scoring issues for expert review.
Develop and improve evaluation code, working collaboratively with other software engineers to maintain code quality, reproducibility, scalability, and documentation.
Support interpretation and ensuring accuracy of eval results by working closely with evaluation developers, research scientists, and subject-matter experts.
Supporting communication
Draft report outlines to facilitate analyses and communication to AI firms and other audiences. In many cases, SecureBio's safety testing directly informs AI companies' safety policies and publications (such as model system cards).
Develop data visualizations and figures for technical reports, stakeholder communications, and for SecureBio’s web dashboard of evaluation results.
Representative Projects
Perform pre-release safety testing on frontier AI models using SecureBio's biosecurity evaluation suite.
Contribute to SecureBio's research reports and stakeholder communications on AI-enabled biorisk by producing structured outputs and draft analyses.
Maintain, populate, and improve SecureBio's web dashboard and associated results database of biosecurity-relevant AI evaluations.
Collaborate with other software developers to improve existing evaluations and develop new evaluations.
Qualifications
Required:
1–2 years of professional software engineering experience, particularly with Python.
Familiarity with basic statistics, data analysis, and data visualization.
Proficiency in using large language models in personal or professional contexts.
Demonstrated ability to navigate and understand unfamiliar codebases.
Strong communication skills, responsiveness, attention to detail, and reliability under tight deadlines.
Mission alignment with SecureBio’s goal of preventing catastrophic pandemics.
Preferred
Experience with Docker and web APIs.
Experience with the Inspect AI evaluation framework.
Experience with frontend web development.
Background in life sciences (e.g. undergraduate degree in biology, or biotech work experience).
Demonstrated ability to analyze and troubleshoot the behavior of complex software systems.
Interest in building long-term expertise in evaluation and model assessment.
Salary & Benefits
This is a full-time, remote role, reporting to Research Scientists. The starting salary range is $70,000 to $115,000 per annum, depending on prior experience. This range assumes a location in the United States; there would be adjustments downwards for candidates based in most other geographic locations. There may be flexibility in salary for exceptional candidates with significant relevant experience.
Our employee benefits reflect our belief in investing to build the strongest possible team, in which everyone receives the trust and support they need to excel. Our benefits package includes:
Comprehensive healthcare
Comprehensive healthcare coverage, including health, dental & vision insurance, as well as a yearly mental health allowance for every employee.
Flexible work schedule
Flexible work hours; unlimited paid time off (PTO) for all employees; and minimum 12 weeks fully-paid parental leave.
World-class office
An exceptional working environment in our Kendall Square office, including high-quality ergonomic office equipment, snacks, and daily catered lunches.
Development opportunities
Generous professional development opportunities, including fully-paid conference sponsorships and a yearly development allowance for every employee.
401(k)
Employer 401(k) match up to 4% of total salary.
Relocation & commuter support
Free commuter benefits, plus a generous relocation allowance for employees who move to the Boston area
About SecureBio
In joining SecureBio, you’ll be joining a motivated, mission-driven, and international team of professionals dedicated to protecting the world from biological threats. Through in-house research & development, as well as collaborations with experts in academia, industry & government, we are working to build the tools, technologies, and institutions the world needs to be secure against future biotechnology,
Major projects by the SecureBio team include the Nucleic Acid Observatory project for reliable pandemic detection and our work to understand and reduce biological risks from advanced artificial intelligence.
Application Process
We will review applications on a rolling basis, and are looking for someone to start as soon as possible.
After considering your written application, we may invite you to a short screening interview. High-performing candidates may be invited to further interviews and/or paid trial tasks. We will also require up to two reference checks.
We’re committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, and we encourage individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply. We especially encourage applications from women, gender minorities, and people of color who are excited about contributing to our mission, and are happy to consider applicants from overseas. We’re an equal opportunity employer.
If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact careers@securebio.org.
Referral Bonus
We offer a referral bonus of up to $3,000 to individuals who refer successful candidates for this position:
If you refer a candidate that we invite to a full structured interview or work trial, you will receive $350;
If the candidate accepts a job offer, you will receive a further $1,150, for a total of $1,500;
If the candidate is still working with us after the three months from their start date, you will receive a further $1,500, for a total of $3,000.
To receive these bonuses, we must reasonably believe that you were responsible for referring the candidate to us (e.g. due to you introducing them to us when we didn’t previously know them, or them mentioning you on their application as the reason they heard about the position).
