At Convergent Research, we identify scientific bottlenecks that, if eliminated, could unlock major advances in human health, climate change, biosecurity, and economic growth. We are interested in building platform technologies that are able to broadly accelerate entire fields of research by removing these bottlenecks.
Why have moonshot efforts to alleviate these bottlenecks remained unattempted?
We believe this is because of a critical gap in the institutional landscape. The hard technical problems tackled by these projects benefit from larger infrastructure budgets than early startups typically have access to, a more industrial-grade, professionalized division of labor than found in academic labs, and greater operational scale, focus, and speed than is enabled inside large organizations.
At Convergent Research, we incubate and launch Focused Research Organizations (FROs). FROs execute with the intensity of the world's best deep-tech startups to build critical tools for science that academic labs can't build and industry won't.
The role
Convergent Research launched the first FROs a little over two years ago. Now, we have 11 entities and 100 employees. We don't see ourselves stopping anytime soon - we'll hit 250 people working across all of CR and the FROs by the end of 2026.
The Head of People will be charged with ensuring our ability to attract, retain, and support 250+ people. This role will be incredibly dynamic - you'll support teams working on the toughest problems in Neuroscience, Climate Change, Biotech, AI and more. You'll be in charge of building the HR infrastructure for a 250 person organization but supporting tens of founders each with their own unique cultures, strategies, and goals.
We aim to help fill a structural gap in today's R&D system. We enable fundamental research that requires unusual levels of scale and coordination yet is not rapidly monetizable by industry. We're bringing together top talent from academia, industry, and startups to build a new model for innovative R&D. As an incubator within the Schmidt Futures Network, we identify high-impact scientific or technical research and development opportunities, ultimately defining and launching these projects as Focused Research Organizations.
We are an Equal Employment Opportunity employer that proudly pursues and hires a diverse workforce. We do not make hiring or employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion or religious belief, ethnic or national origin, nationality, sex, gender, gender-identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local, state, or federal law or company policy. We strive for a healthy and safe workplace and strictly prohibit harassment of any kind.