Chief of Staff
Palo Alto, CA$160k - $237.5k + bonusfull-timePosted 2mo ago
About the role
Chief of Staff serving as scientific and strategic partner to the Executive Director and Core Investigator, responsible for translating scientific engagement into decision-making, program execution, and cross-disciplinary coordination. Involves managing the Executive Director’s operating rhythm, enabling high-priority scientific initiatives, and coordinating internal and external collaborations while handling confidential information.
Responsibilities
- Serve as a scientific and strategic daily thought partner to the Executive Director, engaging critically with scientific work across the lab, institute and external partnerships, providing structure for the work and representing her priorities internally and externally.
- Own the operating rhythm of the Executive Director’s office, including a complex, shifting schedule and the prioritization of conflicting technical and organizational demands. This includes a small amount of administrative work for the Executive director.
- Gather and synthesize technical information and open decisions from across the Institute into clearly framed options, trade-offs, and recommendations, so the Executive Director can make well-informed scientific and strategic decisions quickly.
- Design strategic and effective meeting and offsite pre-reads, meeting agendas and meeting followup for Arc’s leadership team as well as scientific teams
- Drive high-priority scientific programs, collaborations and special projects from inception through execution, anticipating bottlenecks and collaborating with the Scientific Program Management function at Arc
- Partner with the Executive Director and leadership team on defining annual and longer-term strategic goals for the institute
- Unblock science by organizing and stewarding scientific collaborations, within the Institute and with external partners
- Translate complex technical work for varied audiences, from expert scientific staff to institutional leadership, funders, and public-facing communications
- Handle confidential scientific and organizational information with care, thoughtfulness, and discretion
Qualifications
- A Ph.D. (or equivalent research training) with demonstrated scientific track record, or comparable technical depth from consulting or founder path, plus 5-12+ years of experience
- Background in one or more relevant biology areas (e.g., genome or transcriptome engineering, functional genomics, neuroscience, molecular/cell biology, multi-omics, computational biology)
- Demonstrated strength in technical information gathering, stakeholder and dependency mapping, and synthesizing complex scientific information into clear options for decision makers
- Track record of managing complex, cross-functional projects in a research environment from inception through execution
- Evidence of translating technical or scientific work for non-specialist audiences
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with ability to engage credibly with researchers and leadership
- Experience designing and facilitating effective meeting pre-reads, agendas and followups
- Solution-oriented, adaptable to shifting priorities and discreet with confidential information
Skills
Required:Scientific leadership and strategyProject management and cross-functional coordinationCommunication and storytelling
Benefits
- Base salary range: $160,000 - $237,500
- Eligible for annual discretionary bonus
- Compound Cash Grant Program (CCGP) with fixed-dollar annual grants paid as semi-annual installments
Last updated Sep 30, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
About Arc Institute
A full-stack institute for AI and biology research.
Arc Institute is a nonprofit research organization headquartered in Palo Alto, California.
nonprofitAIbiologyliquid-ai-recruiting-targetpartnerships with Stanford University, UCSF, and UC Berkeleyresearch
More open roles at Arc Institute
- Biosafety Manager4d agoPalo Alto, CA · Operations
- Senior Research Associate, Molecular Engineering (Fixed-Term Contract)4d agoPalo Alto, CA · Technology Centers
- Software Engineer, ML Infrastructure1w agoPalo Alto, CA · Technology Centers
- Research Associate II, Pluvinage Lab1w agoPalo Alto, CA · Core Laboratories
- Senior Research Associate, Viral Production (Fixed-Term Contract)1w agoPalo Alto, CA · Technology Centers