Head of Innovation - Generative Biology Institute

At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we're on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators to tackle humanity's greatest challenges in four transformative areas:

• Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
• Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
• Climate Change & Managing CO₂
• Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

This is ambitious work—work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you'll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real‑world breakthroughs. Together, we push boundaries, embrace complexity, and create solutions to scale ideas from lab to society.

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Led by Founding Director Jason Chin, the Generative Biology Institute (GBI) at the Ellison Institute of Technology is tackling the key challenges in making biology engineerable, and thereby unlocking the unrivaled power of biology for the benefit of humanity.

The vision of the GBI is to lay the foundations for engineering biology and unlock its potential for good. To achieve this, we must overcome two key challenges. First, we need the ability to write in the natural language of biology, enabling the rapid and scalable synthesis of entire genomes with precision. Second, we must understand what to write—determining which DNA sequences will generate biological systems that perform the desired functions.

Addressing these challenges will allow us to harness the full power of biology to create transformative solutions across health, agriculture, clean energy, and more.

GBI will have sustained and substantial funding to support the unique scale and ambition of its ground‑breaking vision for engineering biology. GBI researchers will also be supported by cutting‑edge technology hubs including mass spectrometry, flow cytometry, sequencing, automation, imaging, and bioprocessing. GBI will also have access to substantial compute resources that can be leveraged to further accelerate progress, including scientific compute, bioinformatics, and machine learning.

The environment at GBI will allow researchers to undertake ambitious, long‑term, collaborative research, and we will actively support the translation of research to commercial applications, where appropriate.

The Generative Biology Institute commenced operations in 2025, occupying newly renovated bespoke space in the Oxford Science Park. The team will later move to a purpose‑made facility in the Oxford Science Park, currently under construction. Once complete, this state‑of‑the‑art facility will include more than 40,000 m² of research laboratory and office space and will house over 30 groups and up to 600 employees at scale, focused on solving the two critical challenges in making biology engineerable and applying the solutions to addressing the global challenges encapsulated in EIT's Humane Endeavors.

At EIT we are seeking an experienced and detail‑oriented Head of Responsible Innovation to lead the development and implementation of ethical, secure, and socially conscious research practices within the institute. This leadership role will ensure that scientific advancements are aligned with global biosecurity standards and societal values, embedding responsible innovation into the core of GBI's research culture.

The successful candidate will collaborate with world‑class researchers, shape strategic frameworks, and engage with global stakeholders to anticipate and mitigate risks associated with emerging biotechnologies. This is a unique opportunity to influence the future of synthetic biology and contribute to solutions in health, sustainability, and agriculture.

• Develop and lead GBI's Responsible Innovation strategy, embedding ethical foresight and security into research programmes.
• Establish frameworks and processes to forecast and address potential dual‑use of emerging technologies.
• Work closely with scientific leadership and research groups to ensure alignment between…