Research Associate - Vector Core

Merge Labs•San Francisco, CA

1d•$95,000 - $120,000

About The Position

Merge Labs is establishing an in-house AAV vector core to deliver reliable, high-quality vector production for program teams. The core focuses on consistent execution, careful documentation, and continuous improvement so teams can move quickly while maintaining strong experimental reproducibility. We are seeking a Research Associate to help establish, operate, and improve our AAV vector core. This is a hands-on production role that requires strong mammalian tissue culture skills, attention to detail, and a service-oriented mindset. In this role, you will produce small lots of AAV for pre-clinical testing, perform QC assays, maintain complete lot records, and coordinate with scientists across internal programs. Success means that teams receive consistent, high-quality vectors on predictable timelines, production and QC data are accurate and traceable, SOPs are followed and improved, and routine workflows become easier to run reliably over time. This role is well suited for someone who takes pride in repeatable execution and process improvement.

Requirements

A BS, BA, or MS in a scientific, engineering, or related field.
Hands-on experience with mammalian tissue culture and aseptic technique.
Experience with AAV, lentivirus, biologics production, or another biological workflow where reproducibility and sample tracking are critical.
Practical molecular biology experience, such as plasmid preparation, cloning, PCR, and sequence verification.
Experience running analytical or QC assays. Relevant examples include qPCR, SDS-PAGE, sequencing-based QC, ddPCR, or related methods.
Strong documentation habits and experience maintaining accurate sample, lot, and process records in an ELN, LIMS, or another structured sample-tracking system.
Experience following SOPs, recognizing deviations, and communicating issues early.
An organized approach to managing multiple samples, assays, requests, and timelines.
A collaborative, service-oriented mindset and motivation to make repeated workflows more reliable and efficient over time.

Nice To Haves

Hands-on experience developing or engaging with automation workflows.
Motivation to contribute in a fast-paced environment tackling frontier scientific and technical challenges.

Responsibilities

Run weekly AAV production workflows from mammalian cell culture and transfection through harvest, purification, concentration, aliquoting, and sample handoff.
Perform QC assays to assess vector titer, purity, genome integrity, and lot-to-lot consistency.
Prepare plasmid DNA and support molecular biology workflows for AAV constructs and production plasmids.
Translate vector production requests into organized production runs, timelines, and handoffs.
Maintain accurate lot records, sample metadata, QC results, deviations, and process data in an ELN.
Maintain organized inventories of plasmids, cells, vector lots, and reagents.
Follow SOPs for vector production and update them as workflows improve.
Recognize, document, and communicate deviations from expected production or QC outcomes.
Troubleshoot production issues and contribute to practical process improvements.
As team needs evolve, support related viral or non-viral delivery workflows.