{"id":3381421,"url":"https://alion.io/job/taskus-principal-biology-specialist","title":"Principal Biology Specialist","company":{"id":1906746,"name":"TaskUs","domain":"taskus.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/taskus","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"services","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":80,"open_postings":79,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":16,"computed_at":"2026-10-30T05:48:23Z"}},"role":"HR","role_family":"HR","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"remote","remote_scope":"stated_countries","remote_scope_basis":"posting_text","remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":["US"],"hiring_countries_total":1,"salary":{"min":150000,"max":220000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":220000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":9,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Human-in-the-Loop","optional":false},{"name":"Red Teaming","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-26T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-26","last_verified_at":"2026-10-29T22:57:54Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":4,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":4},"description":"About TaskUs:\nTaskUs is a provider of outsourced digital services and next-generation customer experience to fast-growing technology companies, helping its clients represent, protect and grow their brands. Leveraging a cloud-based infrastructure, TaskUs serves clients in the fastest-growing sectors, including social media, e-commerce, gaming, streaming media, food delivery, ride-sharing, HiTech, FinTech, and HealthTech.\nThe People First culture at TaskUs has enabled the company to expand its workforce to approximately 60,000 employees globally. Presently, we have a presence in twenty-three locations across twelve countries, which include the Philippines, India, and the United States.\nIt started with one ridiculously good idea to create a different breed of Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO)! We at TaskUs understand that achieving growth for our partners requires a culture of constant motion, exploring new technologies, being ready to handle any challenge at a moment’s notice, and mastering consistency in an ever-changing world.\nWhat We Offer:\nAt TaskUs, we prioritize our employees' well-being by offering competitive industry salaries and comprehensive benefits packages. Our commitment to a People First culture is reflected in the various departments we have established, including Total Rewards, Wellness, HR, and Diversity. We take pride in our inclusive environment and positive impact on the community. Moreover, we actively encourage internal mobility and professional growth at all stages of an employee's career within TaskUs. Join our team today and experience firsthand our dedication to supporting People First.\n\nSalary Range:\nper year.\n\nPay Transparency Statement:\nThe base salary range represents the low and high end of the anticipated salary range for this position across our US locations. The \"pay scale\" provided is a good faith estimate of the range the employer reasonably expects to pay for the position at the time of hire. Actual salary will be determined based on various factors including, but not limited to, the candidate's qualifications, experience, skills, and specific geographic location.\nBenefits:\nWe offer a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance; 401(k) with company match; and paid time off including vacation, sick leave, and holidays.\nApplication Window:\nThis position is expected to remain open until 11-30-2026 . We recommend that interested candidates apply within 7 days of the posting date to ensure consideration.\n\nJob Description:\nPrincipal Biology Specialist\nTaskUs partners with pioneering technology companies to build the safety, intelligence, and human-in-the-loop operations powering next-generation artificial intelligence.\nIn this role, you will lead a specialized domain pod supporting one of the world’s foremost frontier AI research and safety companies. Their Safeguards mission is paramount: prevent state-of-the-art AI systems from lowering technical barriers to the creation or proliferation of biological weapons and catastrophic risks.\nBecause legitimate life-science research (academic, clinical, synthetic biology) frequently uses the same terminology as biological threat vectors, automated detection systems flag cases for mandatory human triage. As human reviewers provide the definitive ground truth, specialist labels validate and train the automated safety classifiers operating at scale.\nAs the Principal Biology Specialist, you will serve as the pod’s senior subject matter authority and technical lead. You will oversee a tiered team of specialists, establish nuanced adjudication frameworks, resolve the most ambiguous dual-use escalations, and provide executive briefings to client safety leads on emerging biological risk vectors.\nWhat you will do:\nSenior Technical Authority: Act as the final escalation authority on the pod for ambiguous, high-consequence cases, complex customer appeals, and potential high-severity biological threat activity.\n Dual-Use & CBRN Adjudication: Set the standard for distinguishing benign, legitimate scientific inquiry (e.g., vaccine research, epidemiology, protein design, academic virology) from catastrophic misuse:Sourcing and acquisition of select agents and toxins (BSAT)\nGenetic modification or enhancement of transmissibility, virulence, or immune evasion\nScaled culturing, synthesis, down-stream processing, and purification\nFormulation, weaponization, and aerosolization/dispersion mechanics\n\nClassifier Training & Labeling: Deliver high-fidelity, peer-reviewed ground-truth labels that directly validate, evaluate, and fine-tune automated AI safety and refusal classifiers.\n Risk Playbooks & Policy Feedback: Refine investigative playbooks and labeling taxonomies in alignment with international biological conventions (e.g., BWC, Australia Group) and US Select Agent regulations; advise client policy leadership on evolving biotechnology capabilities.\nLead & Mentor a Pod: Technically direct and mentor Senior and Junior Biology Specialists; manage review calibration and quality assurance protocols to maintain rigorous, defensible determinations across the pod.\nClient Briefings & Threat Advisory: Synthesize technical findings into clear, actionable risk memos for client biosecurity leads, advising on emergent frontier model capabilities and dual-use boundaries.\nWhat you bring:\n Advanced Degree (Master’s or Ph.D.) in Microbiology, Virology, Molecular Biology, Immunology, Synthetic Biology, Biosecurity, or a directly related life-sciences discipline.\n 9+ years of professional experience in biodefense, biosecurity policy, public health threat surveillance, biosafety (BSL-3/BSL-4 operations), or specialized CBRN analysis.\nDeep Dual-Use Expertise: Exceptional fluency in life-science research protocols, enabling you to immediately distinguish legitimate academic workflows from illicit, actionable step-by-step weaponization pathways.\n Regulatory & Treaties Fluency: Deep familiarity with national and international biosecurity frameworks, including the Federal Select Agent Program, GDM (Gene Drive / DNA Synthesis screening guidelines), BWC, and export control regimes.\nTechnical Leadership: Proven track record of technically leading a team of scientists, analysts, or intelligence specialists in high-stakes environments.\nCommunication: Exceptional ability to communicate complex microbiological principles and risk assessments to technical engineers, policy teams, and client executives.\nLocation & Authorization: Based in the United States with unrestricted work authorization.\nNice to have:\nPrior experience with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD/DTRA), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS/ASPR/BARDA), CDC, USAMRIID, or the Intelligence Community (IC).\nActive or recent U.S. Government Security Clearance (Secret / Top Secret).\nDirect experience evaluating computational biology misuse, AI safety red-teaming, or automated bio-classifier benchmarking.\nPractical experience working in high-containment laboratories (BSL-3 or BSL-4) or with DNA synthesis screening providers.\nGood to know:\nSensitivity of Material: Daily responsibilities involve reviewing flagged interactions involving dangerous pathogens, toxic agents, dual-use protocols, and synthetic biology instructions.\nScreening Requirements: Selected candidates may be subject to client-directed insider-threat screening, background checks, and credential verification prior to and during engagement.\nLocation: US (Texas preferred)\nWork Setup: Remote\nType: Full time\nSalary Range: $150,000 - $220,000\nHow We Partner To Protect You: TaskUs will neither solicit money from you during your application process nor require any form of payment in order to proceed with your application. Kindly ensure that you are always in communication with only authorized recruiters of TaskUs.\nDEI:\nIn TaskUs we believe that innovation and higher performance are brought by people from all walks of life. We welcome applicants of different backgrounds, demographics, and circumstances. Inclusive and equitable practices are our responsibility as a business. TaskUs is committed to providing equal access to opportunities. If you need reasonable accommodations in any part of the hiring process, please let us know.\nEEO:\nTaskUs is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer. We celebrate and support diversity; we are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. TaskUs people first culture thrives on it for the benefit of our employees, our clients, our services, and our community.\nWe invite you to explore all TaskUs career opportunities and apply through the provided URL https://www.taskus.com/careers/.","description_format":"text","description_chars":8718,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":9,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Synthetic Biology","Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)","Call Center Services","AI Training Data & Annotation"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-28T05:22:56Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 1","filings_12m":1,"filings_prev_12m":2,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":92500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-29T16:27:21+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":63,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.632,"p_room":1,"age_days":4,"expected_fill_days":16,"reasons":["conf:6","stale_co","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-30T05:48:23Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":220000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/taskus-principal-biology-specialist","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/taskus-principal-biology-specialist.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-30T08:35:52Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":12293,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-31T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1906746},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1906746"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Ftaskus-principal-biology-specialist"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Ftaskus-principal-biology-specialist"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Ftaskus-principal-biology-specialist"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/taskus-principal-biology-specialist\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ftaskus-principal-biology-specialist"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3381421}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"taskus.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3381421},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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