Founding Cell Biologist

About the Role

You’ll work closely with the founders and a small team from MIT, Harvard Medical School, Baker Lab, and Radical Numerics.

For the right person, this will likely be one of the steepest learning curves of their career. This is a place where your role can change every few months. If you demonstrate strong judgment, you will rapidly gain additional scope—whether it’s a new workflow, new modality, new program, or a new critical task to own. We’ll provide you with context, trust, and the resources to move fast.

What You’ll Do

• Design, run, and optimize cell-based assays for GPCR pharmacology, including FLIPR calcium flux, cyclic AMP, IP1/IP accumulation, beta-arrestin recruitment, receptor internalization, membrane potential, and related fluorescence or luminescence readouts.

• Develop robust assay workflows across transient and stable cell systems, including cell culture, plating density, receptor expression, ligand stimulation, antagonist/inhibitor formats, time-course design, dose-response curves, and assay window optimization.

• Run high-quality fluorescence, luminescence, HTRF/TR-FRET, BRET, ELISA, plate-reader, and imaging-based assays to characterize potency, efficacy, selectivity, kinetics, bias, and reproducibility.

• Work closely with chemists and automation engineers to connect synthesis outputs to biological activity.

Who You Are

• You may come from cell biology, pharmacology, molecular biology, chemical biology, neuroscience, bioengineering, screening, assay development, or a nontraditional background. What matters is your ability to generate reliable biological data from complex cell-based systems.

• You proactively troubleshoot workflows. When an assay fails, a plate looks unusual, a curve is noisy, or a compound result does not make sense, you systematically identify the root cause and improve the workflow before the same issue repeats.

• You have hands-on experience running cell-based assays. Experience with GPCR signaling assays such as FLIPR calcium flux, cAMP, IP1/IP accumulation, beta-arrestin, or receptor trafficking is helpful but not required. We can teach specific assay formats.

Pay and Benefits

• $120,000–$165,000 salary, plus at least $50,000–$200,000 in equity options

• Compensation will depend on qualifications, skills, competencies, and experience

• Visa sponsorship is available, if necessary

• $500+ monthly wellness budget for training, supplements, personal trainers, and resources to support your best self

• Comprehensive healthcare options, so you can choose the plan that best fits your needs

Application Process

• Initial application

• First phone screen

• Second phone screen (approximately 30 minutes)

• In-person work trial in San Francisco

Apply Today

Applying takes just 5 minutes. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. We are evaluating candidates on a rolling basis and want to make an offer quickly.