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How much do biodefense jobs pay per hour?

As of Sep 5, 2026, the average hourly pay for biodefense in the United States is $44.06, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $33.65 and $51.44 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is biodefense?

A Biodefense job involves protecting people, animals, and the environment from biological threats, such as infectious diseases, bioterrorism, and pandemics. Professionals in this field work in government agencies, research institutions, healthcare, and private industries to develop countermeasures, policies, and response strategies. Their responsibilities may include disease surveillance, biodefense policy development, laboratory research, and emergency preparedness planning.

What are the typical day-to-day responsibilities in biodefense?

Professionals working in Biodefense commonly engage in tasks such as monitoring biological threats, developing response plans, conducting risk assessments, and collaborating with scientists, government agencies, and public health officials. Day-to-day work can include laboratory research, reviewing outbreak data, writing technical reports, and participating in emergency preparedness drills. Many roles also involve ongoing training in biosafety procedures and staying current with emerging infectious disease trends. This collaborative and dynamic environment requires adaptability and proactive communication to respond quickly to potential biological incidents.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive in biodefense?

To thrive in Biodefense, you generally need a background in biology, microbiology, public health, or a related field, often backed by an advanced degree and specialized training in infectious diseases or threat assessment. Familiarity with laboratory safety protocols, bioinformatics tools, and certifications such as Certified Biosafety Professional (CBSP) or HAZMAT training is highly valued. Strong analytical thinking, clear communication, and the ability to work well under pressure are key soft skills in this field. These skills enable professionals to effectively detect, prevent, and respond to biological threats, ensuring public safety and national security.

How to get a job in biodefense?

To pursue a career in biodefense, candidates typically need a background in biological sciences, public health, or related fields, along with relevant experience or research in biodefense or biosecurity. Earning advanced degrees, such as a master's or Ph.D., and obtaining certifications like the Certified Biological Safety Professional can enhance prospects. Job opportunities are often found in government agencies, research institutions, and defense organizations, with security clearances sometimes required.

What can you do with a biodefense degree?

A biodefense degree prepares individuals for roles in government agencies, research institutions, and private companies focused on biosecurity, disease prevention, and response to biological threats. Graduates often work as biodefense analysts, public health officials, or laboratory scientists, utilizing skills in microbiology, epidemiology, and risk assessment. Certifications and security clearances may be required for certain positions.

What is the future of biodefense?

The future of biodefense involves increased focus on emerging infectious diseases, biothreat detection, and rapid response capabilities. Professionals in biodefense will likely need expertise in microbiology, epidemiology, and the use of advanced technologies such as biosensors and data analysis tools to enhance national security and public health preparedness.
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Biodefense jobs near you
Infographic showing various Biodefense job openings in the United States as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 96% Full Time, and 4% Part Time. Highlights an 92% In-person, and 8% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $91,650 per year, or $44.1 per hour.

Product Lead, Biodefense

Radical Numerics, Inc

San Francisco, CA • On-site

Full-time

Posted 11 days ago

Key responsibilities

  • Identify biosecurity and biodefense problems and help decide which to pursue, focusing on risk mitigation, detection, characterization, diagnostic and countermeasure efforts, attribution, and other actions.

  • Set the technical standards and evaluation criteria that Omnii must meet before deployment to customers.

  • Build or guide the development of prototypes to demonstrate how Omnii would work in customer environments and collaborate with engineering teams to enable deployment.

Job description

About Us
Radical Numerics is an AI research lab building general biological intelligence. Our mission is to master the code of life, and our purpose is to reduce human suffering.
Our team created Evo, and started the field of generative genomics. Our work was featured on the cover of Science, and presented by our CEO on the main stage of TED2025. Evo was used to create the first AI gene therapy tool CRISPR-Cas9, and the first AI whole genome from scratch. Evo 2, featured in Nature, is the largest fully open source AI project across any domain.
Radical Numerics is bringing the rigor of distributed systems, model architecture, and numerics research to the challenges of biology. We've redesigned the foundation model training stack to turn the world's raw scientific data (e.g. biological sequences, experiments, and physical processes), into intelligible, generative models that can expand and accelerate what humanity can understand, design, and cure.
The same generative breakthroughs that enable life-saving cures also lowers the barrier to creating engineered threats and AI-generated bioweapons. We believe these forces are inseparable. Radical Numerics was founded to develop both the power to design and the responsibility to defend.
About the Role
You own product and commercial execution for biodefense, helping to improve global preparedness and response capabilities against high-consequence biological risks. You track community needs and investment trends in biodefense and biosecurity and help decide which problems our model, Omnii, is ready to solve, and turn technical evaluations into funded deployments.
Our science team owns the core model. You decide what gets built around it: how results enter an existing pipeline, what evidence a buyer needs, and how the software must run in the customer's environment. You will have substantial say in the samples, comparators, acceptance criteria, and validations we use.
This is a hands-on role that will involve building collaborations with government and nongovernmental partners, working closely with our Head of Biodefense who leads policy, strategy, and senior relationships. You will build or guide early prototypes and work alongside an applications engineer who takes them into production. You own the product, the opportunity, and the path to award.
What You'll Do
  • Identify biosecurity and biodefense problems and help decide what we pursue, helping to target Omnii's capacity to enhance risk mitigation, detection, characterization, diagnostic and countermeasure efforts, attribution, and other actions.
  • Set the technical bar Omnii must clear before a customer uses its results.
  • Find and develop government opportunities. Determine who holds the requirement, where the funding sits, and our comparative advantages.
  • Help embed Radical in the broad biodefense and biosecurity ecosystem through collaborations with targeted nongovernmental and global actors.
  • Design evaluations. That will often mean blinded retrospective studies, comparison against the currently fielded pipeline, and performance on the kinds of samples the customer actually handles-such as wastewater, clinical, or environmental samples.
  • Choose what awards to pursue. Weigh the benefits and constraints of OTAs, BAAs, small-business programs, subcontracts, and direct awards.
  • Turn deployment constraints into product requirements. These may include on-premises or disconnected operation, pinned model versions, provenance, auditability, and the evidence required for authorization.
  • Build or guide the building of prototypes that let a customer see how Omnii would work in its existing process, then work with applications engineering to make the successful ones deployable.
  • Own the commercial process through award. You will set pricing and deal structure with the Head of Biodefense and lead negotiations alongside legal.

What We're Looking For
  • You strive to bring the best possible capabilities to addressing biological threats.
  • You have personally helped win or deliver a technical program for the US government. You have been through an award cycle and understand who owns a requirement, which funding can pay for it, and how a promising pilot gets stranded.
  • You have working fluency in pathogen genomics, biosurveillance, or other relevant fields. You understand next-generation and metagenomic sequencing and pathogen-agnostic detection, what a false positive costs an operator at 3am, and why an inferior incumbent tool may still be difficult to replace.
  • You can hold your own with government scientists, turn their technical obstacles into product decisions, and explain those decisions clearly to our researchers and engineers.
  • You can build an early prototype yourself, enough to test a workflow, interrogate model output, or make a proposed product concrete for a customer.
  • You remain effective when the obstacle is data authority, software authorization, procurement, or an incumbent contract rather than model performance.
  • You are willing and eligible to pursue a US security clearance if the work requires it.
Nice to Have
  • Experience inside a national laboratory, defense or public-health agency, government contractor, or FFRDC.
  • Experience deploying scientific software into disconnected, authorized, or classified environments.
  • Scientific training or substantial professional experience in microbiology, virology, bioinformatics, synbio, countering-weapons of mass destruction, countermeasure development, or public health.
  • Firsthand knowledge of existing biodefense and biosecurity programs and where to enhance their current workflows.

Radical Numerics is committed to equal employment opportunity and does not discriminate in any employment opportunities or practices based on an individual's race, color, creed, gender (including gender identity and gender expression), religion (all aspects of religious beliefs, observance or practice, including religious dress or grooming practices), marital status, registered domestic partner status, age, national origin or ancestry (including language use restrictions and possession of a driver's license issued under California Vehicle Code section 12801.9), natural hair, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, medical condition (including cancer or a record or history of cancer, and genetic characteristics), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical condition), genetic information, sexual orientation, military and veteran status or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local laws. It also prohibits unlawful discrimination based on the perception that anyone has any of those characteristics, or is associated with a person who has or is perceived as having any of those characteristics.
Radical Numerics participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S.

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