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Life Science Research Assistant Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Research Assistant

Stanford, CA · On-site

$22.50 - $31.25/hr

The Department of Neurology is seeking a full-time Research Assistant (Life Science Research Professional 1) to support, manage and facilitate the molecular-related activities in the lab whose ...

Research Assistant

Stanford, CA · On-site

$22.50 - $31.25/hr

The Department of Neurology is seeking a full-time Research Assistant (Life Science Research Professional 1) to support, manage and facilitate the molecular-related activities in the lab whose ...

$19 - $26/hr

AND POSITION REQUIREMENTS The Social Science Research Institute is seeking candidates for Part-Time Research Assistant positions. Responsibilities will include providing support to investigators on ...

$19 - $26/hr

AND POSITION REQUIREMENTS The Department of Ecosystem Science and Management is seeking candidates ... research, and service mission. Federal Contractors Labor Law Poster PA State Labor Law Poster Penn ...

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Life Science Research Assistant information

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How much do life science research assistant jobs pay per hour?

As of Aug 20, 2026, the average hourly pay for life science research assistant in the United States is $16.26, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $16.11 and $16.35 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What is a life science research assistant?

Life Science Research Assistants are professionals who support scientists and researchers in conducting experiments, collecting data, and maintaining laboratory equipment in fields such as biology, biochemistry, and medicine. Their duties often include preparing samples, recording and analyzing experimental results, and ensuring laboratory compliance with safety standards. They play a vital role in helping research teams advance scientific knowledge and contribute to discoveries in health and life sciences.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a life science research assistant?

To thrive as a Life Science Research Assistant, you need a solid background in biology or related sciences, laboratory techniques, and often a bachelor's degree in a life science field. Familiarity with laboratory equipment, data analysis software (such as Excel or GraphPad Prism), and sometimes certifications in laboratory safety are commonly required. Attention to detail, strong organizational skills, and effective communication help ensure accuracy and collaboration within research teams. These skills and qualifications are crucial for producing reliable research results and supporting scientific discovery.

What are some common challenges faced by life science research assistants, and how can they be overcome?

Life Science Research Assistants often encounter challenges such as managing multiple experiments simultaneously, learning to use new laboratory technologies, and maintaining accurate records under time constraints. Adapting to rapidly changing project priorities and troubleshooting unexpected results are also common. Building strong organizational skills, staying proactive in learning new techniques, and maintaining open communication with supervising scientists and team members can help overcome these challenges and contribute to the success of research projects.

What is the difference between Life Science Research Assistant vs Laboratory Technician?

AspectLife Science Research AssistantLaboratory Technician
Required CredentialsBachelor's degree in biology, biochemistry, or related fieldAssociate's degree or certification in laboratory techniques
Work EnvironmentResearch labs, academic institutions, biotech companiesClinical, industrial, or research laboratories
Employer & Industry UsageUniversities, research institutes, biotech firmsHospitals, pharmaceutical companies, research facilities
Common Search & ComparisonYesYes

The main difference between a Life Science Research Assistant and a Laboratory Technician lies in their roles and qualifications. Research Assistants typically focus on experimental design, data analysis, and supporting research projects, often requiring a bachelor's degree. Laboratory Technicians usually handle routine lab procedures, maintenance, and sample processing, often with an associate's degree or certification. Both roles work in similar environments and are essential in advancing scientific research, but their responsibilities and educational requirements differ.

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What cities are hiring for Life Science Research Assistant jobs?

Cities with the most Life Science Research Assistant job openings:

What states have the most Life Science Research Assistant jobs?

States with the most job openings for Life Science Research Assistant jobs include:

Infographic showing various Life Science Research Assistant job openings in the United States as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 78% Full Time, 16% Part Time, and 5% Contract. Highlights an 94% Physical, 2% Hybrid, and 4% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $33,815 per year, or $16.3 per hour.

Research Scientist, Life Sciences

Menlo Ventures

San Francisco, CA • On-site

$300 - $320/hr

Other

Posted 2 days ago

New


Job description

About Anthropic

Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems.

We're seeking an exceptional Research Scientist to join our Life Sciences team at Anthropic. Our team is building a world‑class research group focused on making Claude a superhuman life sciences research assistant. This role sits at the intersection of machine learning, software engineering, and biology — you'll directly improve model capabilities on scientific tasks through post‑training, evaluation design, and RL environment development.

Key Responsibilities
  • Build and ship agentic tools and integrations that let Claude execute real life science workflows — bioinformatics pipelines, database queries, analysis notebooks, literature review
  • Design and build evaluation benchmarks that measure model capabilities on biology tasks — figure interpretation, bioinformatics, protocol reasoning, literature synthesis
  • Work closely with product and design teams to scope, prototype, and ship features for life sciences users
  • Partner with external biotech, pharma, and academic users to understand their workflows and turn feedback into product improvements
  • Build and maintain the engineering infrastructure behind our biology product surface — tool scaffolding, data pipelines, eval harnesses
  • Translate biological domain knowledge into product requirements and evaluation criteria that guide model improvement
Minimum Qualifications
  • Experience applying ML and software engineering to biological problems — computational biology, bioinformatics, protein ML, genomics, or similar
  • Experience working in drug discovery or development at a biotech or pharma company, or conducted fundamental research in an academic setting — with an understanding of what real scientific workflows look like and where they break down
  • Strong software engineering skills: comfortable building production-quality Python, working in large codebases, and owning infrastructure end-to-end
  • Hands‑on experience training or fine‑tuning ML models (LLMs, protein language models, or other deep learning architectures)
  • A track record of shipping computational tools or pipelines that biologists actually use
  • Comfortable navigating ambiguity and defining problems in a rapidly evolving research environment
  • Able to work independently while collaborating tightly with research, product, and domain‑expert teams
  • Results‑oriented with a bias toward rapid iteration and measurable impact
  • Passionate about using AI to accelerate scientific discovery while maintaining high ethical standards
Preferred Qualifications
  • 5+ years of experience applying ML and software engineering to biological problems — computational biology, bioinformatics, protein ML, genomics, or similar
  • Ph.D. in computational biology, bioinformatics, bioengineering, CS, or a related quantitative field — or equivalent industry experience
  • Experience with LLM post‑training: RLHF, RL from verifiable rewards, SFT data curation, or eval‑driven development
  • Direct experience with therapeutic discovery pipelines — target identification, lead optimization, ADMET modeling, or clinical data analysis
  • Familiarity with bioinformatics tooling and pipelines (sequence analysis, structure prediction, single‑cell, variant calling, etc.)
  • Experience building agentic systems or tool‑use environments
  • Published research in ML for biology, or open‑source contributions to computational biology tools
  • Fluency with biological databases (UniProt, PDB, Ensembl, NCBI) and the ability to reason about their schemas and failure modes
Annual Salary

$300,000—$320,000 USD

Logistics

Minimum education: Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training, and/or experience.
Required field of study: A field relevant to the role as demonstrated through coursework, training, or professional experience.
Minimum years of experience: Years of experience required will correlate with the internal job level requirements for the position.
Location-based hybrid policy: Currently, we expect all staff to be in one of our offices at least 25% of the time. However, some roles may require more time in our offices.
Visa sponsorship: We do sponsor visas!

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