Scientist

At Parallel Bio, we are using the immune system to unlock safer, more effective drugs. By creating access to genuine human biology in a diverse, reproducible, and scalable way we’re changing the way researchers find, test, refine, and deliver these life-changing therapies.

The human immune system is the master regulator of health and disease in our bodies. Current tools used to discover drugs that target the immune system are wildly inadequate. To fix this critical gap, Parallel Bio created a human ‘immune system in a dish’ to rapidly accelerate the development of new drugs and immunotherapies more likely to work in patients. This means developing drugs that are known to safely work in humans before the first patient receives the first dose and an end to needlessly destroying millions of lab animals in the pursuit of human health.

By blending this biological innovation with the latest in high-throughput lab automation and integrated data capture & analysis, we’re creating a new type of biotech – one that brings the advantages of cloud computing to next-generation wet lab studies.

Why Work With Us

As a biologist, joining our team means:

• Pushing forward the understanding of how the immune system functions with real-world experimentation.
• Helping create new experimental methods that can be repeated and varied from the keyboard instead of the bench.
• Learning modern data & software practices - techniques considered beyond the cutting-edge in biotech.
• Creating experiments where copies of the same organism can be held constant - either for varied treatments or repeated across replicants to drive down scientific uncertainty.
• Access to diverse populations varied by sex, age, race, medical history can be used repeatedly and repeatably.
  
  

As a technologist, joining our team means bringing the rigor and scalability of computing into the biological domain:

• Work a problem with clear benefits for humanity. This is work worth doing.
• Bring modern software and data practices to biotech, an industry still catching up on 15 years of big data tech evolution.
• The breadth of our systems is breath-taking: from low-level robotics programming to data science & visualization to AI models of immune response and everything in-between. As a small team we tend to work across these areas rather than be siloed into one of them.
• Software is a first-class product concern at Parallel Bio, not a cost-center / service organization. We operate wet labs but we ship data-as-a-product.
• Learn the intricacies of the biological computing system that is the human immune system: antibody selection and production is a complex search problem.
  
  

As part of our operations team, joining Parallel Bio means:

• Playing a key role in enabling the seamless functioning of a pioneering biotech company driving groundbreaking drug discovery.
• Supporting visionary leaders whose work is reshaping how therapies are developed and delivered to patients.
• Collaborating with a multidisciplinary team at the forefront of science, technology, and innovation.
• Gaining insight into the unique challenges and opportunities of scaling a high-impact startup.
• Contributing to a mission-driven organization focused on creating safer, more effective drugs and transforming the future of human health.
  
  

The Role

Note to candidates: The requirements listed here are an exhaustive list of useful traits but not a hard list of requirements. Candidates who don't fulfill one or more of the listed requirements but still think they are strong candidates are encouraged to apply.

As a Scientist, this is a key scientific role at Parallel Bio, where we are redefining human-first drug discovery. Our platform allows for high-throughput immune organoid experiments to accelerate the development of new therapeutics.

The immediate high-level goals for the person in this role are threefold:

• Advance our immune organoid platform by optimizing immune system modeling, improving assay design, and scaling platform automation.
• Support strategic partnerships by executing and analyzing experiments that drive platform improvements.
• Help set up and optimize the San Diego lab for high-impact research.
  
  

While this is a research-focused role, you will also be expected to mentor junior scientists and collaborate cross-functionally with our automation and software engineering teams to refine and expand our platform. You will take an active role in designing, troubleshooting, and interpreting immunological assays, and contribute to the integration of automation and computational tools for large-scale data analysis.

As part of maintaining cell cultures and experimental continuity, this role will require some weekend work on a rotating basis to feed cells and maintain cultures.

This role reports directly to the Director of Platform Biology.

Areas of Responsibility

• Research & Development:
• Conduct hands-on immune organoid experiments in tissue culture.
• Establish and troubleshoot biological assays to evaluate immune responses.
• Develop novel disease models by integrating immune organoids with other biological systems.
• Provide scientific input into the development of high-throughput platforms and data analysis pipelines.
• Perform weekend cell culture maintenance as needed on a rotating basis.
• San Diego Lab Setup & Operations:
• Assist in setting up and optimizing our San Diego lab, ensuring research workflows are fully functional.
• Collaborate with automation and software engineering teams to integrate lab processes with high-throughput experimental data.
• Establish SOPs and best practices for streamlined, reproducible research.
• Partnership & Platform Integration:
• Support collaborative projects with industry partners by designing and executing experiments aligned with partnership goals.
• Integrate insights from external collaborations to improve the platform and drive innovation.
• Work closely with the automation and data science teams to optimize research workflows.
• Mentorship & Scientific Leadership:
• Provide guidance and training to junior scientists in experimental techniques and lab operations.
• Establish standardized protocols and ensure best practices in the lab.
• Help manage project timelines and resource allocation to optimize research output.
  

Job Requirements

Technical Abilities

• PhD in Immunology, Bioengineering, or a related field with 2 years of industry experience preferred. Or, Masters with 2 years of industry experience. Or, Bachelor’s with 5 years of industry experience.
• Expertise in 3D tissue culture, disease modeling, and a broad range of biological assays.
• Experience in lymphoid tissue development and immune system interactions.
• Familiarity with automation, high-throughput screening, or computational data analysis (Python/R) is a plus.
  
  

Location

San Diego, CA (Hybrid model: in-person lab work with some flexibility for remote collaboration).

Compensation Range: $110K - $120K