Skunkworks Fellow

Duration: 2 months · Type: Full-time, On-site/Hybrid, Paid Role

The Mission

Mandrake Bio is building AI models that understand and design biology. We combine biological data, generative models, biophysics, compute, and wet-lab feedback to create programmable proteins and gene-editing systems.

We are a VC-backed, small, high-velocity applied research lab. We don't care about credentials; we care about proof of work, first-principles thinking, and the ability to ship.

The role

We are looking for an unusually creative biology thinker who can identify an important problem and imagine a fundamentally better way to solve it.

You may already have an idea that your laboratory, university, or company lacks the tools to pursue. Or you may have a deep understanding of a problem and the ability to discover a non-obvious solution.

Mandrake will provide access to AI models, compute, computational biologists, and wet-lab scientists. You will bring the biological insight, creativity, and agency required to turn an original idea into a testable V1.

This is not an AI engineering or coding role. The goal is not to marginally improve an existing approach. It is to create a step-change in what is biologically possible.

What you will do

• Identify or bring us a consequential biological problem.
• Develop an unconventional but biologically plausible solution.
• Test the idea with scientists, users, and available evidence.
• Work with Mandrake’s computational and wet-lab teams to design a credible V1.
• Recommend whether Mandrake should build, revise, or stop.

Some problems we’re excited about

• Modular cell and gene therapy: One durable CAR insert with swappable binders that can target multiple, evolving cancers.
• Programmable protein switches: Binders that activate only in the right biological environment—or switch off after producing the desired effect.
• Cell-specific gene editing: Editors that verify the target cell before becoming active.
• Intracellular delivery: Proteins that deliver gene editors, enzymes, or other cargos into the cytosol of specific cells.
• Brain delivery: Programmable shuttles that carry biologics across the blood–brain barrier.
• Adaptive antimicrobials: Generatively designed phages that respond as bacteria evolve resistance.

These are only examples. The strongest idea may be one we have never considered.

You may be a strong fit if

• You have exceptional biological intuition and scientific creativity.
• You are drawn to important problems that others consider too difficult or unconventional.
• You can connect ideas across fields and reason from first principles.
• You seek evidence early and change your mind when the evidence changes.
• You have the agency to carry an ambiguous idea toward a concrete experiment.

We welcome bachelor’s and master’s students, PhDs, postdocs, clinicians, industry scientists, independent researchers, and aspiring scientific founders. Advanced degrees, coding, and prior startup experience are not required.

We care about the quality of your insight-not the letters after your name.

How to apply

Tell us about an important biological problem and the step-change improvement you believe could solve it.

Explain what is broken, what you would build, why it might work, and what first experiment would test the idea.

Bring us the idea that deserves to exist.

Apply Here · or write to [email protected]