Innovation Fellow

About Us

We are Arcadia Science, an evolutionary biology company founded and led by scientists. Our mission is to turn natural innovations into real-world solutions by developing systematic and quantitative approaches to leveraging biology for therapeutics R&D. We share our research as openly as possible to accelerate discovery and make our work broadly useful.

About the Role

We're closing the gap between biological data and biological understanding. Our Pilots advance this work by rapidly testing new ways to measure, model, and interpret biology. What works becomes reusable tools for the rest of Arcadia and beyond. Pilots drive the adoption of new technology and research topics within Arcadia and may also be a source of IP, licensing, and spin-outs. Read more about our work through our publications.

We are seeking an Innovation Fellow to join our Pilots team for a 3-month fellowship. This is an ideal opportunity for scientists who are in the final stages of their PhD or postdoc training and want to experience doing fast-paced, high-risk research in an industry setting. Innovation Fellows will prototype tools or devise novel approaches for efficient scientific inquiry, using strategically chosen biological questions as a test bed. Fellows will scope pilot projects with clear decision points, with the goal of publishing their work openly by the end of the fellowship.

Areas of Focus

The two most important qualities we're looking for are generativity (the ability to identify and develop new research projects) and strong scientific strategy to align your work with Arcadia's goals and efficiently de-risk ambitious research directions. Beyond that, we're looking for candidates with skills that span computational and experimental biology. This may include:

• Tool and technology development for biological research
• Independent experimental design and execution
• Data analysis pipeline development
• Novel assay development or adaptation
• Integrating computational predictions with experimental validation
• Working across diverse organisms and cell types

Responsibilities

• Execute a defined pilot project in coordination with current team members
• Familiarize yourself with internal platform capabilities
• Identify key risks early and optimize for "failing fast" so that promising directions can be pursued and dead ends abandoned quickly
• Establish and track go/no-go decision points for your project
• Collaborate with Arcadia's technically diverse team
• Keep detailed experimental records and documentation for all workflows
• Contribute to collaborative ideation around new pilots
• Publish results openly and share data, code, protocols, and methods by the end of the fellowship

Requirements

• PhD in life sciences, bioengineering, or a related field (3+ years post-PhD experience preferred)
• Hands-on experience in wet lab work and computational analysis
• Strong programming skills (Python and/or R required; familiarity with bash and version control)
• Ability to work independently while collaborating with cross-functional teams
• Strong writing skills, verbal communication skills, and comfort with rapid iteration
• Experience troubleshooting experimental or computational challenges

What We Look For

The first thing we look for is technical talent at the leading edge of a field. To us, this means independent and generative scientists doing basic research that has the potential to produce evidence challenging standard practices. This is true for all of our roles: whether someone is an individual contributor or a people manager, we want researchers pushing their field forward.

More tactically, we are looking for people who are quick to act and can articulate themselves clearly through writing. Our team is flexible and often needs to pivot to match the pace of development at the cutting edge of multiple fields. Bias to action is key. Writing independently is crucial since we share everything we think is valuable to the community and will help us move our research forward. We try to develop novel approaches for every aspect of our science, and everyone on our team is expected to innovate in their domain.

Pay

$8,000 - $12,000 per month. Fellows will receive a competitive monthly stipend. Travel and relocation support is available for candidates relocating temporarily to the Bay Area.