Scientist I, Platform Innovation

Basecamp Research • Cambridge, MA

4d • $110,000 - $140,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Basecamp Research is building frontier AI for therapeutic design. Our EDEN models are trained on BaseData, the world's largest proprietary genomic dataset, with over 10B genes collected through partnerships in more than 30 countries across all seven continents. This gives our AI models access to genetic diversity that doesn't exist in public databases, and enables EDEN to design cell and gene therapies, enzymes, and peptides directly from information about a disease. Our pipeline of EDEN-designed therapeutics, beginning with in vivo cell therapy, is advancing towards clinical development. In September 2026 we closed an oversubscribed $140M Series C led by S32, with participation from NVIDIA, Anthropic's Anthology Fund, Catalio, European Tech Collective, Firebrand River Capital, King Philanthropies, NATO Innovation Fund, NVentures (NVIDIA's venture arm), Redalpine, Rockefeller Foundation, Singular, Sovereign AI and True Ventures. We have offices and labs in London and Boston, we partner with biopharma companies and academic institutions worldwide, and our work has been recognised by Fast Company's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Biotech, the FT-backed Sifted AI100 list of Europe's leading AI startups as well as Barclays Eagle Labs Ones to watch, AI100. At Basecamp Research, we pride ourselves on being a lean collaborative and global team with extremely specialist and unique skills. Our biologists, engineers, ML scientists and field explorers are united by a sense of adventure and the belief that AI, biology and data, will result in new medicines for patients who have few options today. We are seeking a highly capable and proactive Scientist I, Platform Innovation to join our Cambridge, MA team, reporting to the Head of Innovation Science. This role will establish our new platform innovation lab, leveraging our proprietary biodiversity knowledge to develop transformative solutions in gene editing and cellular engineering—specifically targeted cargo integration in dividing and non-dividing cells. You are an energetic and highly motivated scientist with broad experience in gene editing, NGS assay development, and protein engineering. You're comfortable with cutting-edge tools in molecular biology, cellular engineering, and high-throughput screening, with demonstrated expertise in developing and productionizing new assays. This is a collaborative position working closely with our Data Science and AI teams to tackle some of the most exciting and unique challenges in the field.

Requirements

• A PhD in molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, bioengineering, or a life-sciences related field, or an MSc with equivalent hands-on laboratory experience.
• Experience with gene editing, NGS assay development, protein engineering and cell therapy.
• Experience with high-throughput methods of cloning and producing DNA constructs for cellular screening.
• Experience with mammalian cell culture, transfection, and cell-line generation.
• Knowledge of emerging technologies in gene editing and on/off-target analytics that enable regulatory approval.
• Expertise with DNA/RNA extraction, PCR, ddPCR, NGS library preparation and QC.
• Excellent communication skills to both internal and external stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

• Experience contributing to a preclinical cell therapy program (in vivo or ex vivo).
• Expertise in flow cytometry using both antibody panels and fluorescent reporters.
• Experience developing novel methods for gene editing off-target analytics using both long and short-read sequencing.
• Mechanistic understanding of gene editing tools, including nucleases, base editors, transposons, retrotransposons, and recombinases; Ability to reason about proteins as molecular machines.
• Experience integrating AI protein design tools with high-throughput wet lab screening methodologies.
• Fluency in NGS instrumentation, basic bioinformatics tools, and traceable data pipelines.
• Proactive Problem-Solving: A proactive, resourceful, and independent mindset. You take initiative to identify problems or inefficiencies and act on them. You’re the kind of person who spots an issue and rallies the right people to fix it before it escalates.
• Adaptability: Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change. Our environment evolves quickly – you should thrive in a dynamic setting and be flexible in adjusting plans, while maintaining a positive, can-do attitude.
• Ownership & Drive: High degree of ownership over your work. You care about outcomes and reliably follow through on tasks and take pride in delivering quality results.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to establishing a new screening platform for discovery and engineering of novel gene editing tools.
• Work closely with other team members.
• Contribute to strategy for design, build, test cycles of novel protein enzymes, with a strong emphasis on discovery, validation, and engineering of novel gene editing tools.
• Build and screen plasmid libraries, and develop the cloning workflows that let us do it at scale.
• Quantify editing outcomes using ddPCR, qPCR, flow-cytometry and NGS readouts.
• Optimise hits for activity and specificity using human primary cells and cell lines to develop leads for therapeutic development.
• Contribute to an open and high-integrity scientific culture at Basecamp Research.
• Establish strong documentation practices and lab SOPs as a founding member of the lab team.

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Equity
• Healthcare so strong that most employees' family members opt into our plan over their own
• Carrot Fertility with IVF stipend
• 401(k)
• Life insurance
• Coaching available to team members during steep growth journeys
• Twice yearly promotion opportunities

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree