Post-Bachelors Research Associate, Synthetic Biology

Overview

PNNL organizes its core capabilities into major departments referred to as Directorates within the Lab, each focused on a specific area of scientific research or function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.

Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Earth and Biological Sciences, Physical and Computational Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus.

The Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate (EBSD) leads critical research in four areas:
Atmospheric, Climate & Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences, Environmental Molecular Sciences, and Global Change. Our vision is to develop a predictive understanding of biological and Earth systems in transition. We aim to understand energy and material flows within the integrated Earth system; to understand, predict, and control the response of biosystems to environmental and/or genomic changes; and to model the Earth system from the subsurface to the atmosphere.

The Biological Sciences Division has 17 collaborative, interdisciplinary biology-based teams to tackle major challenges in ecosystem sustainability, bioenergy, human health, and national security. Teams use unique field sites, advanced instrumentation, and integrated computational approaches to explore molecular-scale processes. Strategic efforts focus on advancing molecular measurement capabilities, uncovering the structure and function of molecular dark matter, identifying control points in complex systems, and developing domain-aware AI to accelerate discovery and hypothesis-driven research.

The Synthetic Biology team of the Biological Sciences Division at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is seeking to hire an enthusiastic and skilled Post-Bachelor Research Associate
. Applicants with research experience in experimental synthetic biology are especially encouraged to apply. The selected candidate will join a dynamic, multi-disciplinary team developing genetic strategies to control the environmental persistence of engineering microbial functions in the rhizosphere. This work will require both strain engineering acumen and the assessment of microbial fitness across expanding environmental complexity: liquid broth; cultivation with synthetic microbial communities;

and plant rhizospheres in structured matrices. This role requires significant planning, organization, coordination, and communication.

The candidate will be expected to perform high-throughput experiments, independently analyze and communicate research results to the principal investigator, contribute to scientific manuscripts, and work closely with PNNL staff and external collaborators in a multi-disciplinary environment.

This is a full-time, limited-term position anticipated to last 12-24 months, contingent on performance and funding availability starting in January or February 2026.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Candidates must have received a Bachelor’s degree within the past 24 months or within the next 8 months from an accredited college or university.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in a life science or engineering field in the last 24 months from an accredited college or university and 1+ years research experience in molecular biology, microbiology, or engineering.
• Degrees of interest include molecular biology, biochemistry, bioengineering, chemical engineering, or a related field. Some combination of the following skills or experience are preferred: bacterial culture (soil isolates or other), molecular cloning (Restriction/Ligation, Gibson Assembly, Golden Gate Assembly), genome engineering (lambda Red, CRISPR-Cas9, CRISPRi), and cell density and fluorescence assays via microtiter plate reader or cytometer. Attention to detail, ability to work in a collaborative environment, and strong communication, organization, and documentation skills are expected.

Not Applicable

Minimum qualifications are a high school diploma plus two years relevant…