What if…you could join an organization that creates, resources, and builds life sciences companies that invent breakthrough technologies in order to transform health care and sustainability?
Apriori Bio is an early-stage biotechnology company with an ambitious and exciting mission: to lay the foundation for Global Pathogen Shield™ protective interventions that that can neutralize a wide range of the most dangerous and rapidly evolving infectious pathogen threats. The company is developing a revolutionary approach to this challenge and recruiting a team of top-tier scientists to build what it believes will be a powerful, first-in-category R&D platform.
Apriori Bio is a product of Flagship Pioneering's venture creation engine, which has also given rise to companies such as Moderna Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MRNA), Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT), Omega Therapeutics (NASDAQ: OMGA), Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB), and Indigo Agriculture. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has applied its unique hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures. In 2021, Flagship Pioneering was ranked 12th globally on Fortune’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies.
Position Summary:
We are seeking an innovative and entrepreneurial Principal Scientist with strong experience in molecular virology, viral evolution and protein engineering to lead the conceptualization and development of Apriori Bio’s experimental platform. The candidate will be responsible for the design and execution of platform assays that will enable a pipeline of novel vaccines and other health interventions. This role will require interacting in a matrixed team of scientists and computational biologists to execute on the company’s scientific, technological and commercial strategies. The ideal candidate will have a track record of success in inventing and deploying sophisticated tools for high-volume, high-speed discovery, and deriving unique insights from biological data – particularly with regards to protein structure and viral evolution. Experience with the design of vaccines or antibody therapeutics is essential.
Key Responsibilities:
- Working closely with other molecular biologists and computational scientists within and beyond Apriori Bio, lead the design and deployment of innovative, proprietary assays
- Perform and oversee critical data-generating experiments
- Build an infrastructure of laboratory protocols, tools and systems to enable focused and rapid discovery and early pipeline development
- Apply rigorous methods to interpret emerging data in the context of key scientific questions
- Build insights and perspectives to help inform Apriori Bio’s scientific, technological and commercial strategies
- Identify relevant external findings, tools and datasets, and build on these as necessary to support company objectives
- Communicate insights and conclusions to the scientific team and executive management
- Develop relationships with Flagship Pioneering’s broader science community and manage external consultants as needed
Minimum Qualifications:
- PhD. and 5+ years of experience in molecular virology, biology, cell biology, biochemistry, or a related field of biological science
- Experience as a cross-functional project team lead
- Deep understanding of viral functional genomics and viral phylodynamics with experience in viral pseudotyping
- Experience in immunology, virology and/or vaccine design, with a particular focus on reverse vaccinology or other rational vaccine design approaches
- Demonstrated success in pooled cloning, large-scale directed mutagenesis, library generation and/or high-throughput assay development
- Previous work with biological sequence or protein structure datasets
Preferred Qualifications:
- Familiarity with NGS/RNA-Seq methods
- Experience in computational biology, protein engineering and/or structural modelling
Values and Behaviors
We are seeking individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit, strong communication skills, and comfort working in and contributing to a dynamic and cross-functional team environment. The level of the role will be commensurate with the education and years of experience of the identified candidate.
Flagship Pioneering and our ecosystem companies are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.
Recruitment & Staffing Agencies: Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, “FSP”) do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.
