Scientist I, Peptide Drug Discovery
About The Position
As a member of the Parabilis Medicines team, you will be a part of an organization dedicated to creating extraordinary medicines for diseases with urgent unmet needs, harnessing our proprietary peptide platform to transform treatment possibilities for patients. Parabilis is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to unlocking high-impact protein targets long-considered undruggable. The company has developed a new class of stabilized, cell-penetrant alpha-helical peptides – Helicons™ – capable of modulating intracellular proteins that are inaccessible to traditional drug modalities. Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., Parabilis is advancing a focused pipeline of multiple first-in-class therapies across both rare and common cancers. Its lead asset, zolucatetide (FOG-001), is a first-in-class, clinically validated direct inhibitor of the interaction between β-catenin and the T-cell factor (TCF) family of transcription factors, implicated in millions of cancer cases annually, including in colorectal cancer, desmoid tumors, hepatocellular carcinoma and a range of other Wnt/β-catenin-driven tumors. In Phase 1 clinical trials, zolucatetide produced the first-ever clinical evidence that it can directly inhibit this interaction, once previously considered “undruggable” despite its role across multiple cancer types. Parabilis is also advancing investigational degraders of ERG and ARON into clinical development for the treatment of prostate cancer, as well as progressing other preclinical programs. Backed by a recent $305 million Series F financing, Parabilis is entering an exciting phase of growth and execution. What’s the opportunity? Parabilis Medicines has built an in-house, high-throughput multiplexed screening platform that links Helicon discovery to rapid, decision-quality testing against challenging targets. As our pipeline expands, we are scaling capacity and improving assay robustness by standardizing workflows so multiple programs can run in parallel with reproducible, high-quality outputs. We are seeking a Scientist with a chemical biology mindset and strong quantitative experimental rigor to help advance and scale this platform. In this role, you will co-own execution of multiplexed screening assays and lead efforts to improve throughput, robustness, and data quality through assay optimization, automation, and workflow standardization. Over time, you will deepen your understanding of Helicon design and use high-quality assay data to contribute to property optimization and SAR learning.
Requirements
- PhD in Chemical Biology, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Bioengineering, or a related discipline, with 0-2 years’ postdoctoral and/or industry experience.
- Strong hands-on experience developing, optimizing, and executing experimental assays (biochemical, biophysical, and/or cell-based), with demonstrated attention to detail and reproducibility.
- Quantitative approach to assay quality and performance, including comfort with controls, variability, robustness, and data QC to produce decision-quality readouts.
- Demonstrated scripting and tool-building experience (Python or similar) beyond ad hoc “vibe coding,” with examples of using code to automate analyses, streamline workflows, or solve recurring operational problems.
- Ability to work cross-functionally and communicate clearly with chemistry, biology, and data-focused colleagues.
- Demonstrated use of AI tools in your current role and responsibilities is required; advanced or innovative use is a plus.
Nice To Haves
- Experience improving lab throughput through automation or semi-automation, or strong aptitude and interest in learning and applying automation technologies in a screening environment.
- Familiarity with high-throughput screening concepts and scaling assay workflows to support large sample numbers.
- Working knowledge of peptide chemistry and/or peptide discovery concepts is a plus but not required.
Responsibilities
- Own and improve multiplexed screening assays: run, optimize, and standardize assays to increase robustness, reproducibility, and throughput across multiple programs.
- Advance automation in practice: enable automation for existing assays and build new assays with automation in mind, troubleshooting and iterating workflows to achieve consistent performance.
- Build script-based tools to scale execution: develop reusable scripts and lightweight tools (Python or similar) that reduce manual steps and improve experiment setup, tracking, QC, and reporting for broad team use.
- Drive decision-quality data and learning: apply quantitative rigor to assay performance and data QC and translate outputs into insights that inform next experiments and, over time, Helicon optimization.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Entry Level
Education Level
Ph.D. or professional degree
