Laboratory

Laboratory for Brain Resilience (to be established on February 1, 2026)
RIKEN Center for Brain Science
(Team Director: Emi Ling)

Outline of Laboratory

The Laboratory for Brain Resilience studies the molecular mechanisms that drive individual differences in brain aging, aiming to translate these insights into innovative, equitable therapies that preserve cognitive health. By combining molecular neurobiology, biochemistry, and single-cell genomics, we seek to map natural variation in brain aging and uncover the molecular pathways underlying age-related changes in brain function and disease.

Job title and Job description

Job title

Technical staff I: 1position

Job description

The Laboratory for Brain Resilience seeks a highly motivated technical staff member to advance research on the molecular mechanisms underlying cell-type-specific vulnerability in normal brain aging. In support of this goal, the successful candidate will assist team members across a multidisciplinary suite of experimental approaches, including emerging molecular biology and biochemical assays, mouse husbandry and related procedures, and single-cell transcriptomics.

Primary duties and responsibilities include:

• Under the supervision of the PI or team members, set up equipment, prepare samples, run protocols, collect data, and perform basic data processing/analysis.
• Maintain an up-to-date lab notebook documenting all experimental details.
• Assist with maintaining mouse colonies.
• Contribute to developing, refining, and documenting protocols, and train team members on their proper execution.
• Help configure, operate, and maintain laboratory equipment, including scheduling calibrations and repairs.
• Order reagents and supplies as needed, track inventory, and report usage to the team.
• Support safety and compliance activities, including preparation for inspections.
• Attend lab meetings, share progress updates, and participate in discussions.
• Perform other related tasks as assigned.

The job description may be changed during the contract period or upon contract renewal to the extent described above.

Qualification

Key qualifications include:

• Bachelor’s degree in a life science discipline or comparable experience in the field.
• Experience with molecular biology techniques, cell culture work, and transgenic mouse lines is preferred.
• Experience generating single-cell omics data is ideal but not required.
• A strong working knowledge of common office productivity suites (e.g. Microsoft Office, Google Workspace) is preferred.
• The ideal candidate is highly organized, detail-oriented, self-motivated, adept at troubleshooting, thrives in a collaborative setting, and is eager to acquire new skills and expertise as needed.
• Proficient in both spoken and written English.

Work location

RIKEN Center for Brain Science (2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama 351-0198)
RIKEN may order the employee to change work locations, if necessary.

Salary and benefits

• 1.A one-year fixed-term employment contract, renewable based on evaluation, to a maximum of the end of the fiscal year (March 31) in which the employee completes 3 years of employment.
• 2.RIKEN may adjust the above maximum period of renewability based on a) the employee’s abilities, work load at the time of contract completion, performance and work attitude and b) the continuation of the employee’s center, laboratory or project and RIKEN’s management situation and budget at the time. In principle, employment contracts will not be renewed for individuals older than 70 years.

In principle, the first two months of employment are considered a trial period.
Salary will be an annual salary based on experience, ability, and performance, and will consist of a base salary and a variable salary. The variable salary will be determined each fiscal year based on experience, ability, and performance.

Technical staff I:
Discretionary work, commuting and housing allowances will be provided. Social insurance will be applied.
The approximate amount of salary at the time of employment:
The total amount of monthly discretionary work allowance and monthly salary at the time of hiring will be 301,690 JPY or more.

RIKEN has a telecommuting system, but this position requires attendance at the work location. Therefore, the telecommuting system is not available for this position, in principle.

Technical staff I position falls under the specialized duties discretionary work system; one working day will be calculated as 7 hours and 30 minutes.

Days off include public holidays, New Year's holidays (Dec. 29 - Jan 3), and RIKEN Foundation Day.
Paid leave includes annual paid leave (up to 20 days depending on the month of employment), special paid leave (caring for a sick child, family nursing care, etc.), and work life balance holidays (up to 7 days depending on the month of employment).
There are also additional leave systems such as maternity leave, childcare leave, and family nursing care leave.
Smoking is entirely prohibited on site.
These and other provisions are in accordance with RIKEN regulations.
Mandatory membership in the RIKEN Mutual Benefit Society (RIKEN Kyosaikai).

RIKEN is actively undertaking initiatives to promote gender equality and diversity, and moving forward with the establishment of a diverse and vibrant research environment. If multiple candidates are found to have the same aptitude following a fair assessment, active efforts will be made to recruit female candidates.

The Wako Campus has an on-site daycare, RIKEN Kids Wako. For details, please send an email to kids@riken.jp.

Application and required documents

Required documents

• 1.Complete CV or CV
  • *Write the RIKEN job ad number “25-2622”, indicated in the parentheses next to the job title, in the RIKEN job ad number section in the upper right corner of your CV.
• 2.List of achievements (including ResearcherID or Google Scholar ID, if available)
• 3.List of acquired skills
• 4.Reason for applying for the post (Personal strengths, motivation, etc.)
• 5.A letter of recommendation from the current supervisor (If unavailable, a letter from a substitute reference will be acceptable.）
  • *Please specify the referee’s contact information (Name, affiliation, job title, phone number, and email address)
• 6.Consent form for handling personal information based on GDPR/UK GDPR
  If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA) or the UK, you are required to sign and submit the document, “Consent form for handling personal information based on Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) and the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation.”
  • *For residents of the EEA, you will find detailed information about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the following website:
    Data protection | European Commission
  • *For residents of the UK, you will find detailed information about Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation) on the following website:
    The UK GDPR | Information Commissioner’s Office

  How to apply

  The above documents, except the letters of recommendation, should be combined into a single ZIP file and uploaded to the following link:

  For Technical Staff position, Lab for Brain Resilience, RIKEN Center for Brain Science

  The file name of the ZIP should contain your contact email address.
  After you upload the ZIP file, please let us (cbs-jinji@ml.riken.jp) know the file name of the uploaded file.

  Letters of recommendation must be directly submitted from the referees to the following link with the file name "Lab for Brain Resilience, Technical Staff [applicant’s name] Letter of recommendation". Please specify the applicant's name, and referee's name and contact information in the letter of recommendation.

  For Technical Staff position, Lab for Brain Resilience, RIKEN Center for Brain Science

  After the referees upload the letter of recommendation, please let us (cbs-jinji@ml.riken.jp) know the file name of the uploaded file.
  If a confirmation email is not received within 7 days after submission, please contact: cbs-jinji@ml.riken.jp.

  Note: All the submitted documents will not be returned.

  Deadline

  Open until the position is filled

  Handling Personal Data

  Submitted documents are strictly protected under the RIKEN Privacy Policy and will be used only for the purpose of applicant screening at RIKEN. Personal information will not be disclosed, transferred or loaned to a third party under any circumstances without just cause.

  Selection process

  Application screening and interview for selected applicants

  Notification of hiring decision

  The notification of hiring decision (conditional offer of employment) regarding this selection shall be carried out through the presentation of an Employment Contract or a Conditional Offer of Employment issued by RIKEN.

  Start of Employment

  April 1, 2026 or later (Negotiable)

  Contact information

  Personnel Committee Secretariat for Center for Brain Science
  Life Science Research Promotion Division, RIKEN
  Email: cbs-jinji@ml.riken.jp
  For inquiries, please send an email.