Recruiting Lead

Over the past year, we’ve doubled our team, launched new workstreams, and raised over 17.5M to accelerate the development and deployment of countermeasures against pathogens with pandemic potential. This momentum isn’t slowing down—the next several years represent a rare opportunity to scale this work, meaningfully reduce biological risks, and save lives. We are on track to double in size again, as programmatic ambition and external demand continue to grow. This role will be central to one of the most impactful things we can do as an organization: building the team that will carry Blueprint’s mission forward at a critical moment.

We're looking for our first in-house Recruiting Lead to build that team. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, this is a hands-on, full-cycle role for someone who is energized by finding outstanding talent, motivated by mission, and excited to build scalable systems, not just fill roles. We’re looking for someone who feels a genuine sense of urgency about building our team, understands the stakes of our work, and is deeply motivated to get the right people in the door.

Key Responsibilities

• Own full-cycle recruiting for a diverse portfolio of roles across research, programs, policy, and operations
• Manage an active recruiting load of approximately 5–8 roles at a time, balancing speed, quality, and candidate experience
• Partner closely with leadership and hiring managers to scope roles, define success profiles, and design hiring strategies
• Proactively source and engage mission-aligned candidates, particularly for specialized or hard-to-fill roles
• Manage candidate assessment processes, including screening, interview coordination, evaluation, and offer support
• Build and improve recruiting infrastructure, including interview processes, evaluation tools, documentation, and ATS workflows
• Serve as an ambassador for Blueprint Biosecurity, ensuring candidates experience our organization as thoughtful and values-driven

Qualifications

Our ideal candidate:

• Is deeply motivated by Blueprint’s mission and feels genuine urgency about building an exceptional team
• Finds energy and meaning in identifying, engaging, and closing outstanding candidates
• Leverages expertise and experience to provide leadership, strategic planning, and direction to teams for hiring decisions
• Enjoys operating with autonomy and ownership in a rapidly growing organization
• Brings a strong sense of pace and momentum to their work, helping teams stay energized, aligned, and on track
• Understands how to build recruiting processes using best practices and then adapt them to our unique circumstances
• Cares deeply about candidate experience, fairness, and integrity in hiring

Required:

• Proven track record of leading full-cycle recruiting efforts for nonprofits, research organizations, policy institutions, or mission-driven teams
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple concurrent searches effectively
• Strong sourcing skills and comfort engaging passive candidates
• Experience providing strategic support and guidance to hiring managers and advising on hiring decisions
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Preferred:

• Experience recruiting in biosecurity, public health, science policy, or adjacent technical fields
• Experience building or improving recruiting systems and processes from scratch
• Experience navigating the recruiting challenges that come with rapid scaling, maintaining quality and culture while significantly increasing headcount
• Project management or general operations experience
• Experience building teams through multiple stages of growth
• Technical knowledge or experience in the biosecurity or pandemic preparedness space

What This Role Isn't

This is not a transactional or agency-style recruiting role. It is not a short-term position focused solely on moving candidates through a pipeline nor a purely administrative or coordination-focused job. This role is for someone who wants to be deeply embedded in the organization to partner closely with leadership and hiring managers, take real ownership of outcomes, and invest in the long-term success of Blueprint Biosecurity through thoughtful, high-integrity hiring.

If you’re reading this and thinking “this is exactly the work I want to be doing,” we want to hear from you.

You don’t need to meet every listed qualification to apply. If you’re excited about the role but unsure about your fit, we encourage you to reach out at recruiting@blueprintbiosecurity.org.

What We Offer

Compensation: The base salary for this position ranges from $115,000-$150,000 USD. We consider a variety of factors when formulating an offer, including but not limited to, the role and responsibilities, work experience, education/training, skills, expertise, and internal equity.

Benefits: Our benefits package for full-time employees includes:

• Unlimited PTO + paid holidays.
• Generous health and wellness benefits through an Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) for you and your family.
• Fully paid family leave.
• Annual 401(k) contributions equal to 10% of your base salary.
• $5,000 annually to support professional development and productive remote work.
• Access to multiple state-of-the-art LLMs.
• Institutional access to a range of major news outlets and publications.

Location: Remote, United States

We are a remote team with periodic in-person meetings in Washington, DC. Staff outside DC travel there a few times per year, and we have a slight preference for candidates based in or open to relocating to DC.

This role requires up to 10% travel, including both Washington DC and other locations for conferences, workshops, or team events.

We are only considering US candidates at this time and are not able to sponsor visas for this role.

Start date: We’d like a candidate to start as soon as possible after receiving an offer, though there is some flexibility.

Workplace Inclusion and Accessibility: We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive environment where all employees have the opportunity to succeed. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status. Please let us know what accommodations you might need when applying or if asked to be interviewed by emailing us at recruiting@blueprintbiosecurity.org.

Referral Bonus: We offer a referral bonus of up to $5,000 to individuals who refer successful candidates for this position:

• If the candidate receives a job offer from us, you will receive $1,000;
• If the candidate is still working with us after successfully passing their probationary period, you will receive a further $4,000, for a total of $5,000.

To receive these bonuses, we must reasonably believe that you were responsible for referring the candidate to us (e.g. due to you introducing them to us when we didn't previously know them, or them mentioning you on their application as the reason they heard about the position). Email us at recruiting@blueprintbiosecurity.org to submit a candidate.

About Blueprint Biosecurity

Blueprint Biosecurity is a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening society’s ability to prevent and respond to pandemics. We advance practical, pathogen-agnostic solutions through targeted research, strategic grantmaking, and evidence-based policy guidance that protect vital workers and reinforce systems essential to pandemic preparedness and response.

Our work spans personal protective equipment, far-UVC, and other airborne pathogen mitigation technologies. We pair research with active implementation, working with partners across government, academia, industry, and philanthropy to translate our strategic frameworks, known as Blueprints, into real-world action. Our goal is to ensure that when the next outbreak begins, society is ready to respond so communities remain safe, stable, and resilient.

In 2025, Blueprint awarded millions in grants to academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, and technical partners advancing research on pandemic preparedness technologies and raised $17.5 million to accelerate this work. In 2026, we plan to significantly scale our team, grantmaking, and strategic engagements to identify, validate, and drive adoption of the most promising pandemic preparedness solutions.

Benefits: Our benefits package for full-time employees includes:

• Unlimited PTO + paid holidays.
• Generous health and wellness benefits through an Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) for you and your family.
• Fully paid family leave.
• Annual 401(k) contributions equal to 10% of your base salary.
• $5,000 annually to support professional development and productive remote work.
• Access to multiple state-of-the-art LLMs.
• Institutional access to a range of major news outlets and publications.