Bioinformatics/Computational Biology Expert

About the role

Handshake is looking for experienced computational biologists and bioinformatics scientists to support AI research through flexible, part-time contract work. This is not a traditional job — you'll draw on your hands-on experience in genomics, NGS analysis, or computational biology to evaluate AI-generated content and provide feedback that helps AI reason like a practicing computational biologist or bioinformatics scientist. This is an ongoing, project-based opportunity you can take on alongside your current role.

What You'll Do

• Use your domain expertise to create expert-level bioinformatics problems and scenarios grounded in real pipeline design, sequence analysis, and research workflows
• Review and evaluate AI-generated responses for technical accuracy, reproducibility, and alignment with how the work is actually done
• Provide structured written feedback to help improve AI model performance
• Complete tasks at your own pace with no set schedule or minimum hour requirement

Qualifications

Ideal candidates meet all three of the following:

• Industry/research experience — a track record of first-author publications and ownership of non-trivial bioinformatics pipelines that frontier AI models cannot reproduce
• Degree — PhD in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Genomics, or a comparable quantitative/life sciences discipline. An MS paired with strong industry experience also qualifies
• Sub-domain depth — demonstrated expertise in one of the following areas:
  • NGS/genomics pipelines (BWA, GATK, samtools) and sequence analysis (BLAST, Biopython)
  • Statistical genetics
  • Structural biology (PyMOL, AlphaFold)

Candidates who meet at least 2 of the 3 qualifications above are also encouraged to apply.

Additional Qualifications (not Required, But Strengthen Your Application)

• Proficiency with R/Bioconductor and other standard bioinformatics or computational biology software environments
• Experience owning end-to-end genomics or NGS/sequencing pipelines in an academic or industry research setting

Requirements

• Must have US work authorization
• Strong written communication and attention to detail
• Ability to explain complex biological concepts clearly
• Ability to work independently in a remote, asynchronous environment