COMPANY

Octant is a well-backed team of experienced scientists and entrepreneurs at the frontiers of biology, chemistry, and computation. We are a small molecule therapeutics company scaling drug discovery to navigate the complexity of human diseases using an integrated platform combining synthetic biology, genomics, computation and high-throughput chemistry.

Octant is an equal opportunity company that deeply values diversity, equity, and inclusion, and welcomes applicants of all backgrounds. We’re committed to growing the company with a diversity of talented individuals and our team is dedicated to fostering an inclusive and supportive work environment for everyone.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Octant is seeking a Research Associate (RA) to join our Synthetic Biology team. The Synthetic Biology team develops and builds cellular sensors to understand and measure the cellular mechanisms that drive disease. As a member of Octant’s Synthetic Biology team, you will: 

  • Dive deep into the complex biological mechanisms of our drug programs
  • Work with scientists on our drug programs to develop and run the necessary cellular and biochemical assays to map chemical matter to biological activity 
  • Be an expert on the Synthetic Biology technology stack including OCTOPUS, reporter development, multiplexed assays, cellular engineering (lentivirus, transposases, crispr, etc), and more
  • Build and run technology that enables better cellular assay development
  • Solve the immediate in vitro pharmacology needs of our drug programs

You are motivated by Octant’s mission and have a team-first mindset. You bring strong technical skills in molecular biology, next-generation sequencing, plate-based assays, mammalian cell engineering/husbandry, excellent communication, and an ability to thrive in a dynamic and fast-paced environment. As a member of the Octant team, you’ll contribute to Octant’s scientific strategy by designing, executing, and interpreting results for significant technology projects. You thrive on getting things done, are eager to troubleshoot random tasks that arise in startups, and can navigate the uncertainty of an ever-changing and fast-paced environment.

THIS JOB MIGHT BE GREAT FOR YOU IF YOU:

  • Have a BS/BA in biology, genetics, biochemistry or a related field, or equivalent experience
  • Have 0-5 years of experience in cellular assay development, molecular cloning, next-generation sequencing, plate-based assays, mammalian cell engineering/husbandry, and other related experience
  • Are motivated by clean and consistent data and moving quickly to generate results
  • Enjoy working at the bench
  • Are detail-oriented and thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative, team-oriented startup environment
  • Work well in a cross-functional team environment
  • Have experience analyzing data in R or Python (preferred)

The expected annual base salary for this role is in the range of $70,000 to $110,000, depending on experience level. We offer health benefits (medical, dental, vision), equity, and 401(k) matching.

Octant is located in Emeryville, California and our team works onsite.

We want to find the best candidate for the job, and that candidate may come from a less traditional background. We may consider an equivalent combination of knowledge, skills, education, and experience to meet minimum qualifications. We know that confidence-gap and imposter syndrome can get in the way of meeting spectacular candidates, so please don’t hesitate to apply — we’d love to hear from you.


OCTANT’S NAVIGATOR PLATFORM:

Octant’s Platform, “The Navigator,” is an expanding set of drug discovery and development capabilities using scaled approaches that empirically explore and engineer biology and chemistry. The biology and chemistry platforms work in a virtuous cycle with each other, and are enabled by automation and compute:

  • Biology Platform – Cellular Intelligence – Octant's biology platform uses high-throughput approaches to design, build, and test human cell models that interrogate cellular and biophysical mechanisms implicated in disease. We use Cellular Intelligence to deeply explore how drugs and genetics impact those mechanisms that might be at play and correlate them with clinical outcomes. This enables us to identify druggable mechanisms and develop target candidate profiles. These assays then also serve as our screening infrastructure to discover molecules that achieve our desired target profiles.
  • Chemistry Platform – HT-SAR – Octant’s chemistry platform uses high-throughput and nano-scale synthetic chemistry to identify and iteratively improve chemical starting points that interact with the cellular and biophysical mechanisms implicated in our target disease pathways. HT-SAR enables us to drive suboptimal hits towards molecules that meet our candidate profiles, engineering them into high-quality lead molecules and ultimately drugs.

We bring both sides of this platform together through custom software, automation, and data science to drive speed, scale, and learnings in order to drive week-to-week progress on our drug programs.

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