Job description

ABOUT US Radical Numerics radicalnumerics.ai 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 science.org, and presented by our CEO on the main stage of TED2025 youtube.com. Evo was used to create the first AI-generated CRISPR-Cas9, and the first AI whole genome biorxiv.org from scratch. Evo 2 nature.com, featured in Nature, is the largest fully open source AI project across any domain. In October, we introduced Omnii-1, the world's most advanced multimodal genome language model, and a leap toward general biological intelligence. It unifies 28 biological modalities, spanning DNA, RNA, proteins, epigenomics, and more, in a single model trained on trillions of tokens of biological data In a world first x.com, Omnii-1 designed the first AI-generated bacteriophages to be administered to a human patient with an antibiotic-resistant infection under compassionate use. We released this news alongside seven other project areas radicalnumerics.ai, showing the model’s breadth of applications. 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 As our first dedicated People Operations lead, you'll own the full scope of how Radical Numerics supports its team: compensation, benefits, immigration, onboarding, compliance, and the systems that keep a fast-growing research lab running smoothly. This is a high-impact role for someone who enjoys building from the ground up and wants their work to directly shape how a company grows. You'll work closely with our CEO, Recruiter, and Operations Manager to shape the employee experience from start to finish. Once a candidate accepts an offer, you'll take the lead and stay with them throughout their time here, from securing visas to making day one seamless, to running performance reviews and handling exits with care. Your goal is to make sure every person on our team feels supported, informed, and set up to do their best work. Our team spans Tokyo and San Francisco. You'll bring clarity and structure the onboarding process, coordinating across countries, regulations, and time zones so that our people can focus on their research. Much of our people infrastructure is still being built, and that's where you come in. You'll design the policies and processes we need, run them for the first time, and refine them into repeatable systems that scale as we grow. If you're energized by ambiguity and want to build something lasting, we'd love to hear from you. What You'll Do - Own compensation and leveling. Maintain comp ranges and the employee-levels mapping, and run equity scenario modeling and benchmarking for new roles. - Plan and run performance review cycles in Complete. - Own onboarding and offboarding end to end, including welcome and pre-start communications, background checks, I-9 verification, system access, and departing-employee accounts. - Serve as primary contact with immigration counsel for O-1 petitions, OPT/EAD cases, and green card renewals, and act as company signatory where appropriate. - Administer Justworks, including benefits, open enrollment, and state registrations for remote employees. - Answer employee and candidate questions about benefits and policy. - Set up and manage international employment through EOR arrangements as needed. - Partner with outside employment counsel on employee relations, performance concerns, terminations, and changes to offer letters and CIIAs. - Lead planning on office move scenarios and timelines with our real estate partners alongside our Operations Manager. - Build the policies, handbook, and compliance practices a growing company needs before it needs them. What We're Looking For - You have run People Operations at an early-stage company and can explain the systems you built, not just the ones you inherited. - You have hands-on experience with U.S. employment immigration, especially O-1, OPT and H1Bs and know how to keep timelines and counsel moving. - You understand startup compensation, including bands, leveling, and equity, and can model tradeoffs clearly for leadership. - You know PEO and EOR platforms such as Justworks, and understand multi-state and international employment compliance. - You exercise judgment on sensitive issues and know when to bring in counsel. - You are organized enough to run many open threads at once without dropping any, and you document them so someone else could pick them up. - You are comfortable creating a process before there is a playbook. - You are excited about building a generational company at the intersection of AI and biology. 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.

Requirements

Must-haves

Our team spans Tokyo and San Francisco. You'll bring clarity and structure the onboarding process, coordinating across countries, regulations, and time zones so that our people can focus on their research.
Own compensation and leveling. Maintain comp ranges and the employee-levels mapping, and run equity scenario modeling and benchmarking for new roles.
Plan and run performance review cycles in Complete.
Own onboarding and offboarding end to end, including welcome and pre-start communications, background checks, I-9 verification, system access, and departing-employee accounts.
Serve as primary contact with immigration counsel for O-1 petitions, OPT/EAD cases, and green card renewals, and act as company signatory where appropriate.
Administer Justworks, including benefits, open enrollment, and state registrations for remote employees.
Answer employee and candidate questions about benefits and policy.
Set up and manage international employment through EOR arrangements as needed.
Partner with outside employment counsel on employee relations, performance concerns, terminations, and changes to offer letters and CIIAs.
Lead planning on office move scenarios and timelines with our real estate partners alongside our Operations Manager.
Build the policies, handbook, and compliance practices a growing company needs before it needs them.
You have run People Operations at an early-stage company and can explain the systems you built, not just the ones you inherited.
You have hands-on experience with U.S. employment immigration, especially O-1, OPT and H1Bs and know how to keep timelines and counsel moving.
You understand startup compensation, including bands, leveling, and equity, and can model tradeoffs clearly for leadership.
You know PEO and EOR platforms such as Justworks, and understand multi-state and international employment compliance.
You exercise judgment on sensitive issues and know when to bring in counsel.
You are organized enough to run many open threads at once without dropping any, and you document them so someone else could pick them up.
You are comfortable creating a process before there is a playbook.
You are excited about building a generational company at the intersection of AI and biology.
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.

Nice-to-haves

None flagged.

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

Platform: ashby
Effort: quick