Senior Scientist

Vivodyne • San Francisco, CA

11d • $115,000 - $160,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Vivodyne creates human data before clinical trials. We accelerate the successful discovery, design, and development of human therapeutics by testing on large, lab-grown human organ tissues at massive scale, driving technological advancement at the convergence of novel biology, robotics, and AI. We identify and validate new therapeutic targets and de-risk new therapeutic assets by producing clinically translatable multi-omic data from our proprietary, physiologically-realistic human organ tissues at unprecedented scale, speed, and quality. This enables us to produce more human data than all clinical trials in the U.S. combined. We’re financially backed by some of the most selective and successful venture funds, and we have already partnered with a majority of the top 10 multinational pharmaceutical companies to discover and develop better, safer drugs and dramatically reduce the burden of animal testing.
www.vivodyne.com
Role
This is a full-time, onsite role in San Francisco.
You will lead the development, optimization, and scaling of advanced human tissue models for therapeutic discovery at Vivodyne. This role is focused on building robust, biologically faithful in vitro tissue systems that generate actionable data and can be deployed reproducibly at scale within Vivodyne’s automated experimental platform.
As a Senior Scientist on the Bioengineering team, you will own a scientific program centered around a specific tissue system or disease model (e.g. liver, lung, gut), driving projects from early biological hypothesis generation through mature, scalable workflows suitable for high-throughput experimentation and therapeutic evaluation.
You will work cross-functionally with bioengineers, computational biologists, AI scientists, roboticists, hardware engineers, and translational researchers to develop next-generation human tissue platforms that enable deeper understanding of human biology and drug response.
This role requires exceptional experimental rigor, deep technical expertise in complex cell culture systems, strong scientific reasoning, and the ability to make sound, data-driven decisions in ambiguous and fast-moving environments. We are looking for a scientist who combines deep biological intuition with disciplined execution and who consistently designs experiments that produce clear, actionable conclusions.

Requirements

• PhD in bioengineering, cell biology, molecular biology, physiology, developmental biology, genetics, or a related field.
• 2–4 years of industry experience following PhD and/or postdoctoral training in biotechnology, therapeutics, tissue engineering, or related fields.
• Demonstrated record of scientific achievement through high-impact publications, patents, awards, or other evidence of advancing the state of the art in your field.
• Deep expertise in mammalian cell culture, including primary human cells and complex 3D tissue models.
• Extensive hands-on experience designing and executing sophisticated in vitro experiments with strong experimental controls and reproducibility.
• Expertise with modern biomolecular and cellular characterization techniques including: confocal imaging, flow cytometry, transcriptomic workflows, proteomic assays, next-generation sequencing workflows, and interpretation of resulting datasets.
• Mastery of experimental design, assay development to fit experimental needs, and quantitative biological analysis.
• Proven ability to independently drive complex technical programs in fast-paced R&D environments.

Nice To Haves

• Experience developing organoid, organ-on-chip, or microphysiological systems.
• Experience scaling biological workflows into automated or high-throughput systems.
• Experience working with multimodal datasets integrating imaging, transcriptomics, proteomics, and functional readouts.
• Familiarity with computational analysis tools for biological data interpretation.
• Experience supporting translational, preclinical, or therapeutic discovery programs.

Responsibilities

• Lead development and optimization of complex in vitro human tissue models using primary human cells and advanced 3D culture systems.
• Design, execute, and interpret experiments to improve tissue phenotype, stability, scalability, reproducibility, and biological relevance.
• Develop healthy and disease-state tissue models across multiple organ systems and therapeutic areas.
• Drive mechanistic understanding of tissue behavior through multimodal characterization approaches.
• Independently design rigorous experimental strategies with clear success criteria, controls, and actionable outcomes.
• Generate high-quality datasets using approaches including confocal imaging, transcriptomics, proteomics, flow cytometry, and functional assays.
• Analyze and synthesize complex biological data to guide model optimization and program direction.
• Troubleshoot difficult experimental problems systematically using first-principles reasoning and quantitative analysis.
• Establish and refine SOPs and experimental workflows suitable for scalable automated execution.
• Partner closely with robotics and hardware teams to adapt tissue workflows for automated operation and large-scale experimentation.
• Support transfer of tissue models from exploratory R&D into reliable production-grade workflows.
• Identify sources of experimental variability and implement strategies to improve robustness and reproducibility.
• Contribute to the development of scalable assay and tissue characterization pipelines.
• Serve as a scientific lead and subject matter expert for tissue biology programs.
• Interface closely with AI, computational biology, software, automation, and translational science teams.
• Present experimental findings clearly and effectively to internal leadership and external collaborators.
• Mentor junior scientists and contribute to building a culture of scientific rigor, operational excellence, and world class experimentation.
• Maintain meticulous experimental records, protocols, analyses, and decision rationale.
• Ensure experimental conclusions are reproducible, well-supported, and operationally actionable.
• Contribute to internal scientific standards for data quality, assay validation, and experimental design.
• Drive continuous improvement of workflows, assays, and organizational scientific practices.

Benefits

• High-Impact Mission — Play a foundational role in transforming drug discovery through computational biology applied to the richest human tissue datasets in existence.
• Method, Not Just Application — You won't just run pipelines. You'll decide what pipelines should exist, whether they're working, and what should replace them.
• Multi-Disciplinary Exposure — Work alongside experts in robotics, AI, tissue engineering, and microfluidics in a deeply cross-functional setting.
• Growth Opportunities — A fast-growing startup with significant autonomy, ownership, and direct influence over the biological data infrastructure and analytical strategy.

What This Job Offers

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