Associate Director, Platform Technology
Reports To: Chief Technology Officer
Classification: Exempt, Full-Time
Job Summary
Switch Therapeutics is seeking an enthusiastic and highly motivated scientist to further innovate around our proprietary CASi platform and to help build and manage a team of scientists to support this effort.
This role will report directly to the Chief Technology Officer and will be expected to lead from the bench.
The pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $175,000 and $195,000 per year; however, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including market location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this position may also include other elements, including equity in the Company, a discretionary annual bonus, in addition to a full range of healthcare, financial, and/or other benefits (including 401(k) eligibility and various paid time off benefits, such as vacation, sick time, and parental leave. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if a candidate receives an offer of employment.
If hired, the employee will be in an “at-will position” and the Company reserves the right to modify base salary (as well as any other discretionary payment or compensation program) at any time, including for reasons related to individual performance, Company or individual department/team performance, and market factors.
Responsibilities
- Planning and executing experiments that strengthen our ability to design and develop CASi-based therapeutics and better understand their mechanisms of activation.
- Assessing and onboarding new techniques and approaches that can accelerate these efforts.
- Recruiting, training, and managing personnel to execute platform technology experiments.
- Coordinating experimental efforts across multiple in-house disciplines, including chemistry, bioinformatics, and in vivo biology.
- Ensuring documentation and data capture in ELN and file-sharing systems.
- Contributing to new innovations and intellectual property applications.
- Assisting in the development of annual goals and budgets.
- Regularly communicating activities and data to senior management, scientific advisors, and the Board of Directors.
- Representing Switch Therapeutics at key scientific conferences.
Required Qualifications
- PhD in RNA Biology, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Biochemistry, or a related field
- At least 5 years of experience in pharma/biopharma, with at least 3 of those years specializing in RNA-based therapeutics. Additional relevant experience may qualify for a director level position.
- Previous experience with transfection of both established cell lines and differentiated iPSCs.
- Previous experience with RNA isolation (from cells and tissues) and qPCR.
- Previous experience managing direct reports is strongly preferred.
- Familiarity with Microsoft Office and Prism GraphPad.
- Strong communication and presentation skills and experience in communication with both internal and external audiences.
About Switch
Switch Therapeutics is an emerging biotechnology company that is developing RNAi therapies stemming from transformative technologies invented at Caltech, City of Hope, and Harvard Medical School.
The company’s conditionally activated siRNA (CASi) platform integrates RNA nanotechnology with RNA medicinal chemistry to create siRNA pro-drugs that can activate or suppress their own drug activities based on the presence or absence of disease indicating RNA markers in mammalian cells. This gives CASi based drugs the ability to target specific cells responsible for disease while sparing healthy cells from drug activity.
Since its founding in Q3 2020, Switch has made significant progress in optimizing its technology for therapeutic applications and has generated highly compelling in vivo validation data demonstrating distribution, potency, and duration of effect that support development for important disease indications.
Interested applicants should send a resume and cover letter to careers@switchthera.com.