Your place, your space

A man wearing blue protective gloves with his shirt sleeves rolled up sits next to high-tech lab equipment. A microscope is in the background.

Invest in people, not projects

People, not projects, are at our core. We make a lasting investment in our people, empowering them with the tools, training, and development to flourish and do meaningful work.

Two employees, a man and a woman, sit side-by-side at a counter as one of them shares information on a laptop screen with the other. Library bookshelves and a green plant are in the background.

Learn continuously

Take a scientist’s approach to your work. Get curious and brave when solving problems – test, tweak, and iterate to find the best solution, even if that means a fail along the way.

A smiling male employee in a blue and white polka-dot shirt and jeans leans against a wall in an HHMI corridor with one hand in his pocket. The wall is decorated with rock slabs containing many fossil fish from the famous Green River Formation in Wyoming.

Be your authentic self

When you come to work, bring your uniqueness with you. Diversity can add to our creativity. We want to foster environments in which we all feel we belong.

Three scientists, two men and a woman, discuss the contents of a petri dish the woman is holding. There is a lab bench scattered with supplies in front of them and a white board with equations behind them.

Be mission-driven

We are led by scientists, not a CEO. We care about the long-term impact HHMI has on the world, not short-term problems or profits.

In a wide shot of a dining room, colleagues sit around large, round tables eating lunch as light comes in from the skylights and the glass doors to the terrace.

Personalize your benefit options

We’re all about choice. Our options for medical insurance, retirement plans, and wellness programs set you up to make the best decisions for you and your family’s individual needs.

Six colleagues stand in two groups of three, having discussions in a sunny common area. Large, colorful artwork hangs on the wall in the background.

Work in beautiful spaces

At headquarters and Janelia, we provide space for collaboration and interaction beyond your office – sunlit rooms, artwork, beautiful grounds, gyms with classes, snacks, and, of course, smart people and innovative work all around.

Meet your colleagues

“I love working with my scientist colleagues who are always thinking about the best ways to test and evaluate a new concept or campaign. I learn so much from them because we approach problem solving differently and bring complementary experiences to the challenges we face.”

Anna Irwin
Head of Marketing & Communications - Tangled Bank

“Most of our grants and fellowship programs are designed to help those underrepresented groups in science as well as those that come from backgrounds that might prevent them from having access to the great resources HHMI provides. To me that’s a mission I can really get behind.”

Adrielle Darby
Senior Program Assistant, Undergraduate and Graduate Programs

“Individuals and teams are relaxed and healthy (even while they work hard) because of everyone’s competence and commitment to the mission. I’ve never worn a tie here in 8 years. Correction: I did once, realized my mistake, and had it off by lunch time.”

Andrew Burnett
Office Manager, CFO

“The best part of my job is really about the ability to do new and different things – the ability to explore and try things out, to make reasonable mistakes – and having the flexibility to work with many different stakeholders.”

Matthew Engeln
Senior Director, IT Services

“HHMI’s mission is to advance basic medical and biological science and tool development, with a focus on high-risk/high-reward work that other research institutes (government and industry) would be unlikely to pursue.”

John Bogovic
Bioinformatics Specialist, Janelia
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Locations

HHMI Headquarters Campus
Chevy Chase, MD

HHMI headquarters houses administrative and operational teams that partner with our science and science education programs.

Janelia Research Campus
Ashburn, VA

Janelia Research Campus is our pioneering research center tackling some of science’s most challenging problems. It includes both research labs and operations teams.

Field Offices & Host Institutions
Nationwide

HHMI builds administrative, research, and technical teams in our field offices and in host institution laboratories throughout the United States.