Merge Labs
Scientist - In Vivo Molecular Neurotechnology
$120K–$215K
San Francisco Bay Area · On-site · Full-time · Posted Feb 11, 2026
- Education
- PhD in Neuroscience, Biology, Bioengineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience leading research projects end-to-end.
About the job
Develop and validate molecular biosensors and actuators for brain-computer interfaces, optimizing their delivery, function, and tolerability in rodent models.
What you'll do
- Lead rodent in vivo validation pipelines, including gene delivery, surgery, behavioral or sensory experiments, and ex vivo characterization.
- Optimize biomolecule delivery and expression, and benchmark functional performance and biological effects.
- Collaborate across engineering and research teams to develop experimental setups and guide next-generation designs.
What they ask for
- PhD in Neuroscience, Biology, Bioengineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience leading research projects end-to-end.
- Expertise benchmarking and optimizing molecular tools in vivo, including viral delivery, advanced surgery, and histology or tissue-imaging methods.
- Experience conducting rodent neuroscience research with sensory or behavioral experiments and simultaneous imaging and/or stimulation.
Nice to have
- Experience generating transgenic animals or using ex vivo methods such as activity-based labeling or spatial sequencing.
- Experience with larger animals, protein or gene construct engineering, or computational approaches.
Pay
$120K – $215K (base salary)
AI focus
The role develops molecular neurotechnology for brain-computer interfaces intended to integrate with advanced AI; no specific AI development work is stated.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative