About Arc Institute 

The Arc Institute is a new scientific institution that conducts curiosity-driven basic science and technology development to understand and treat complex human diseases. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Arc is an independent research organization founded on the belief that many important research programs will be enabled by new institutional models. Arc operates in partnership with Stanford University, UCSF, and UC Berkeley. 

While the prevailing university research model has yielded many tremendous successes, we believe in the importance of institutional experimentation as a way to make progress. These include: 

  • Funding: Arc provides centralized, long-term funding to liberate scientists from the typical constraints of project-based external grants or short-term venture funding cycles
  • Technology: Biomedical research has become increasingly dependent on complex tooling. Arc Technology Centers develop, optimize and deploy rapidly advancing experimental and computational technologies in collaboration with Core Investigators. 
  • Support: Arc aims to provide first-class support—operationally, financially and scientifically—that will enable scientists to pursue long-term high risk, high reward research that can meaningfully advance progress in disease cures, including neurodegeneration, cancer, and immune dysfunction. 
  • Culture: We believe that culture matters enormously in science and that excellence is difficult to sustain. We aim to create a culture that is focused on scientific curiosity, a deep commitment to truth, broad ambition, and selfless collaboration. 

Arc scaled to nearly 100 people in its first year. With $650M+ in committed funding and a state of the art new lab facility in Palo Alto, Arc will continue to grow quickly to several hundred in the coming years.

About the position

We are seeking an exceptional scientific leader and researcher to build and manage the Genome Engineering Center, one of the foundational Technology Centers at the Arc Institute. The Center will be internally funded and staffed by professional research scientists. Under your management, the Center will conduct long-term and fundamental research programs with the goal of enabling capability breakthroughs that lead to rational insights and treatments for complex human diseases such as neurodegeneration, immune disorders, and cancer.

The Center’s R&D projects connect to collaborative, institute-wide initiatives staffed across the Technology Centers as well as in collaboration with Core Labs at Arc. At Arc, you will have the opportunity to partner closely with genome engineering pioneers (Luke Gilbert, Silvana Konermann, Patrick Hsu), machine learning experts (Hani Goodarzi, Brian Hie), and a Bay Area-wide community of 20+ Arc-affiliated labs at our 3 partner universities. Additionally, the Center will develop a Molecular Biology Platform focused on high-throughput, automated approaches for molecular biology and biochemistry.

In this position, you will:

  • Build and manage a fully funded genome engineering Technology Center of ~10-20 FTEs. Initial research activities will include:
    • Development and application of CRISPR technologies for functional genomics (including multiplexed and bimodal CRISPRi/a, Cas13, and editing systems) to drive our institute initiatives at the intersection of biology and AI
    • Cellular engineering and optimization (including cell lines, stem cells, and differentiated cell types, in collaboration with our Cellular Models team)
    • Development of the Molecular Biology Platform for automated cloning and the optimization or development of CRISPR capabilities (e.g. protein engineering, directed evolution, etc.)
  • Serve as a deep domain expert for genome engineering and functional genomics at the institute
  • Actively mentor and provide guidance to research staff and develop them professionally and scientifically
  • Develop state of the art protocols, resources, and processes for advanced genome engineering that is actively circulated to the institute and broader scientific community
  • Engage in and manage internal and external research collaborations, present research findings

 About you

  • You are a scientific leader and an expert in genome engineering. You think about gaps in the space and know the kind of experts you need to hire to address these gaps. 
  • You love thinking about thorny biological problems and building new high-throughput tools to address them.
  • You think about genome engineering in cells and in vivo, and are always looking for ways to make technology more efficient and useful in complex systems.
  • You are a collaborator. You’re an expert in your domain and you greatly enjoy working successfully with scientists from other teams, labs and scientific domains. You believe that working on projects with scientists from different backgrounds can lead to the most exciting and successful research.
  • You love to learn. As much as you love working with other people, you also love learning from them, learning new skills, and staying up-to-date on the latest in the field.
  • You are a mentor. Being a great scientific leader doesn’t stop at hiring your team. You love mentoring and developing people both professionally and scientifically – both in your team as well as other scientific teams at Arc.

Job Requirements

  • PhD, MD or MD/PhD in a relevant field with 12 – 15 years of relevant experience in industry and academic settings
  • Previous managerial experience leading and growing stellar scientific teams
  • Rigorous background in genome perturbation technologies and functional genomics
  • Outstanding written and verbal communication skills is required for research presentations, SOP development, and publications
  • The successful candidate will be an ambitious self-starter, be motivated to apply his/her skills to diverse projects and enjoy working in a fast-paced team environment.
  • Familiarity with computational requirements of modern functional genomics, and ability to interface with bioinformaticians in the Computational Biology Center

Roles with discretionary bonuses:

The base salary range for this position is $212,500-$262,500. These amounts reflect the range of base salary that the Institute reasonably would expect to pay a new hire or internal candidate for this position. The actual base compensation paid to any individual for this position may vary depending on factors such as experience, market conditions, education/training, skill level, and whether the compensation is internally equitable, and does not include bonuses, commissions, differential pay, other forms of compensation, or benefits. This position is also eligible to receive an annual discretionary bonus, with the amount dependent on individual and institute performance factors.

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