Chief Operating Officer

Chief Operating Officer

Sentinel Bio is dedicated to making pandemics history within our lifetimes by finding, funding, and scaling the most promising efforts to eliminate catastrophic pandemics over the coming decade. Since launching in 2024, we’ve played a central role as the biosecurity field has achieved significant milestones towards substantially mitigating pandemic risk.

We have raised nearly $40 million in philanthropic capital and funded >70 grants, special projects, and incubated organizations focused on safeguarding AI-enabled biology and DNA synthesis.

How to apply

If you are excited about Sentinel's mission and believe you are a strong fit for this role, please answer a few questions and upload your CV via this form.

We will review applications on a rolling basis and aim to move quickly for strong candidates. Strong candidates will be asked to complete a compensated work test.

Why this role exists

Our field stands at an inflection point: the threat of AI-enabled biotech misuse is accelerating dramatically, while new philanthropic resources create unprecedented opportunities to bolster societal resilience. With our track record and relationships across biosecurity, AI, and philanthropy, Sentinel is exceptionally well-placed to seize this moment in history. 

We're hiring an exceptional COO to build an organization that can deploy >$100M by 2030. You'll own the internal architecture Sentinel needs at 2x, 5x, and 10x today's scale.

What you'll own

As a core member of our leadership team, you will work closely with Sentinel’s CEO, program leadership, and Operations Lead on organizational health. You will represent us externally, and we will trust you to make meaningful decisions independently.

Strategic Leadership & Organizational Management

• Serve as a strategic organizational leader, owning the operational picture of Sentinel and proactively surfacing risks, bottlenecks, and opportunities.
• Develop and execute Sentinel's operational strategy, including annual and multi-year roadmaps across finance, HR, compliance, and program operations.

Partnership with program teams, grantees, and incubatees

• Help stand up new biosecurity organizations from zero to one.
• Work closely with program leadership to translate strategic priorities into resource plans.
• Independently represent Sentinel externally with legal counsel, partners, and other stakeholders.

People, Culture & Hiring

• In partnership with our CEO and program team, lead recruitment across the organization and our portfolio to attract and retain high-caliber talent.
• Build and manage Sentinel's operations function, including direct management of our Operations Lead.
• Own onboarding, offboarding, compensation frameworks, and employee development across multiple jurisdictions and entities.

Finance & Compliance

• Own Sentinel's financial health (budgeting, forecasting, reporting, cash flow management) in partnership with our Operations Lead and external controller (who owns bookkeeping).
• Ensure compliance with all applicable nonprofit regulations, including filings, audits, and governance requirements, working closely with external legal counsel and accountants on challenging, high-risk areas. 

Who You Are

The right person will be deeply mission-aligned, operationally excellent, and able to exercise mature judgment in ambiguous, high-stakes situations: 

• You demonstrate excellent judgment: you are confident in holding complexity, navigating ambiguity, and making sound decisions in high-stakes situations.
• You’re exceptionally savvy with people and communications: You know how to hire, develop, and manage outstanding people, and can represent us externally in writing, on Zoom, and in person.
• You have a flexible mind and low ego: You’re ready to operate at the pace of a startup and with the robustness of a trusted philanthropy. You can think strategically about what the organization needs in 2–3 years, while also being willing to draft a contract or troubleshoot today.
• You’re mission-driven: you are passionate about Sentinel's focus on biosecurity and pandemic prevention, and share our seriousness about the mission.

This role spans several domains, and no one candidate will be strong in all of them. That said, we're particularly excited about candidates who bring some combination of:

• Bring 8-12+ years of experience in operations and organizational leadership, with a demonstrated ability to own complex projects end-to-end.
• Have worked in a small organization where you were responsible for building operational infrastructure from scratch, not just maintaining existing systems.
• Comfortable with budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting, and nonprofit compliance and governance, with a strong preference for US 501(c)(3) experience.
• Have experience in philanthropic grantmaking, biosecurity, or adjacent high-stakes nonprofit sectors (helpful but not required).

What We Offer

You'll work with a small, ambitious team that punches well above its weight, alongside some of the most influential organizations and individuals in AI and biosecurity.

• Compensation: $220,000-$260,000+, plus unconditional retirement or pension contributions.
• Competitive benefits: Healthcare and retirement contributions; personal and professional development budget; generous PTO, workspace membership, travel.
• Location: D.C. or San Francisco preferred, but open to remote (including international) and hybrid work.
• Unlimited PTO and paid holidays.

More About Sentinel Bio

We are a small, high-trust team that moves quickly, takes our work seriously, and holds ourselves to a high standard. Impact on our mission is the bottom line we use as our North Star. When the path forward is unclear or difficult, we turn to these guiding values for inspiration and motivation:

• Unwavering integrity: We seek and speak the truth even when it is costly to us.
• Relentless prioritisation: We diligently deploy our precious resources, including our time, funds, and the trust of our partners.
• Calibrated humility: We recognize our limitations without overstating them and generously share both credit and opportunities for impact with others.
• Sustainable ambition: We pursue the mission to our limits but no further, seeking the assistance we need and embracing that we will sometimes fail.

Sentinel Bio is led by Claire Qureshi, who has over 15 years of leadership experience in biotech, global health, public policy, and consulting, and Joshua Monrad, who has deployed philanthropic grants for tens of millions of dollars and helped build several new biosecurity institutions. We have strong partnerships with a geographically diverse group of philanthropists who share our long-term mission, and we're on track to raise and deploy $100M by 2030. 

At Sentinel Bio, we're building a team that reflects the global community we serve, embracing differences in background, perspective, and experience. We actively seek out and welcome talent from all walks of life, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, or any other aspect that makes you uniquely you.

Referral Bonus

Know someone who'd be a great fit? Please get in touch via our referral form, where we offer a $5,000 bonus to individuals who refer successful candidates.

To receive these bonuses, we must reasonably believe that you were responsible for referring the candidate to us (e.g., because we didn’t previously know them, or them mentioning you on their application as the reason they heard about the position).