Director, Lab Automation
About The Position
Parabilis Medicines is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to creating extraordinary medicines for patients with serious diseases by unlocking biologically important targets long considered undruggable. The company has pioneered a new class of alpha-helical peptides – Helicons™ – capable of modulating intracellular proteins that have historically been beyond the reach of conventional medicines. The company’s lead investigational medicine, zolucatetide, is the first and only direct inhibitor of the β-catenin:TCF interaction, a central node in the Wnt/β-catenin pathway that has eluded drug developers for decades. Zolucatetide is being evaluated in the clinic across multiple Wnt/β-catenin-driven diseases, including desmoid tumors, familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and a range of other solid tumor indications. Beyond zolucatetide, Parabilis is advancing additional Helicon-based programs focused on other challenging targets where we believe our medicines could have life-altering impact. For more information, visit www.parabilismed.com or follow us on LinkedIn. You will be the leader of our internal laboratory automation platforms, and will play a key role in the development of autonomous science capabilities. This on-site position encompasses two primary areas of responsibility: owning a sophisticated, fully-automated robotics system that will serve as the core experimental foundation for discovery programs, and collaborating with members of all our research departments on developing and implementing automation across all other aspects of our experimental science. This is an opportunity to build and lead a critical component of our future discovery platform, and to work closely with a diverse group of engineering, AI/ML, data science, and discovery teams to develop a next-generation, AI-driven discovery paradigm and apply it to discover high-impact medicines for patients with severe disease.
Requirements
- Bachelor's or graduate degree in life sciences, bioengineering, or a related field
- 10+ years of hands-on experience with laboratory automation systems in a drug discovery or pharmaceutical R&D environment, with direct experience operating high-throughput liquid handling platforms
- Demonstrated ability to independently develop and troubleshoot complex automated assay workflows from concept through routine operation, covering all technical aspects of both software and hardware
- Experience working cross-functionally with experimental and data science teams; comfortable translating scientific requirements into automation specifications and vice versa
- A curious and growth-oriented mindset, with openness to learning new tools and approaches, and an ability to adapt modern AI tools as a part of everyday work
- Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and prioritize effectively in a fast-moving environment
- Ability to recruit, manage, and develop technical talent
- Comfortable working in a small-company environment where scope is broad and self-direction is expected
Nice To Haves
- Familiarity with HighRes, Benchling platforms, and AI-driven / autonomous scientific systems is a strong plus
Responsibilities
- Own our core HighRes-based automation platform, leading its installation and configuration, and working with experimental groups from across discovery to develop and productionize methods and to organize its routine operation
- Serve as the primary technical resource and strategic partner for laboratory automation across all research functions, identifying opportunities to automate manual workflows and improving experimental consistency, scale, and reproducibility
- Collaborate closely with our AI/ML, data science, and experimental teams to develop and implement increasingly AI-driven scientific capabilities, with the ultimate goal of creating highly autonomous scientific discovery systems to enable and accelerate our discovery of new medicines
- Build and lead a small team that operates, evolves, and expands our automation platforms and autonomous science systems
- Evaluate emerging automation technologies and vendors, and build and maintain external relationships to continue to advance our capabilities and to stay on the cutting edge
Benefits
- annual target bonus
- equity
- comprehensive suite of competitive benefits designed to support our employees’ overall well-being
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
