Sr. Scientist - Immunology/Nucleic Acid Therapeutics

About the role

This role supports the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) in accelerating better health outcomes through the development and management of innovative R&D projects.

Responsibilities

• Assist, support, and provide advice to the Program Manager to further the development and progress of new and existing programs.
• Conduct thorough technical scientific evaluation of the current R&D landscape to identify gaps in research portfolios and address critical needs that are aligned with the ARPA-H mission.
• Monitor and track performers progress toward established metrics.
• Read and digest complex information and develop team and executive level briefings for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Use your strong logical and critical thinking skills to critically review scientific and technical data.
• Integrate into an existing team to support current ARPA-H efforts and operate independently and in a group environment in support of technical R&D efforts.
• Perform basic administrative tasks such as collecting, sorting, analyzing, and writing Internal programmatic reports/briefings on relevant topics in a health-related field.

Requirements

• Candidates must have a PhD in immunology, nucleic acid therapeutics, synthetic biology, analytical chemistry, materials science, or related fields.
• Experience in immunology, nucleic acid-based prophylactics and therapeutics, nucleic acid delivery, synthetic biology and cell engineering, gene regulation, biochemistry, analytical and polymer chemistry, materials science, mass spectrometry, in vivo imaging techniques, toxicology, cell and structural biology, biomaterials, nanotechnology, and microbiome and microbial communities.
• Experience coordinating independent verification and validation, and previous experience managing programs with cooperative agreements, Other Transaction (OT) awards, milestone-based contracts, FFRDCs, interagency efforts, and commercialization efforts.
• Strong PowerPoint and Excel skills, including proficiency with keyboard shortcuts and ability to create PPT slides and Excel files on the fly during a meeting in a high-pressure environment.
• Professional curiosity, continuous drive for learning, and the ability to focus on assigned tasks are critical attributes of the ideal candidate.
• Strong technical writing skills, ability to communicate complex scientific ideas to broad audiences, digest basic and applied research across areas of biotechnology and apply to health capability gaps, and demonstrate a willingness to explore the scientific literature for emerging biotechnology.
• Expertise anticipating and mitigating ethical, legal, and societal implications of high-profile research efforts is desired.
• Must be able to obtain a federal government Public Trust clearance.

Qualifications

Current and planned efforts include in vivo cell engineering; protein editing; tunable therapies that sense and respond to cell stimuli; trans-omic sequencing platform development to enable total molecular analysis of individual cells for research, diagnostics, and therapeutic design; and detection of and removal of toxic substances from the body.

Skills

Experience with animal/clinical studies, diagnostic development, therapeutic development, regulatory requirements, and test and evaluation are desired. Previous experience with basic and applied research is preferred. Prior support to executives managing large budget programs in an R&D environment is preferred.

Benefits

Remote position with full benefits. Ongoing contract supporting ARPA.

Pay

Salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

Schedule

This is a remote, temporary position. Some CONUS travel is expected (~10-20%) as needed to fully support the Program Manager and Program.