Senior Research Associate

Location & Hours:

Hybrid, in-office Monday, Wednesday, Friday

South San Francisco

Position Overview

Plasmidsaurus is hiring a Senior Research Associate as a core member of our Research and Development team at our South San Francisco headquarters. This role is ideal for someone who is motivated to accelerate the pace of biotech research and brimming with ideas to unlock step changes in the scientific workflow. You’ll be instrumental in unleashing our next wave of transformative sequencing services, building new molecular biology methods to ensure that we continue to deliver the kind of game-changing products our customers have come to expect from us.

What you’ll do

• Build amazing things. Support R&D scientists in expanding new sequencing services.
• Get your hands dirty. Develop and run high-throughput wetlab experiments using advanced automation and robotics.
• Keep us prepped. Manage inventory and lab supply ordering.
• Keep us organized. Maintain detailed, reproducible experimental records
• Have an eye for improvement. Identify opportunities for new applications, bottlenecks, fix inefficiencies, make our workflows smarter and more efficient.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in biology or a related field, with 5 years hands-on wetlab work
• Experience with molecular biology techniques including plasmid design, cloning, PCR, DNA/RNA extraction, and sequencing library preparation. You should be able to think in molecular interactions.
• Experience with cell culture and cell characterization. Experience with RNA extraction from cells and tissues a plus.
• Strong understanding of the intricacies of different sequencing technologies and hands-on experience with DNA library prep.
• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex experimental workflows in the lab and develop creative solutions to overcome challenges. You should be able to quickly intuit the problem, rapidly validate the issue, and try a number of potential fixes in parallel.
• Ability to quickly acquire all of the relevant reagents and zero in on the ideal solution with minimal oversight, as you'll operate with high agency in the design, execution, analysis, and interpretation of experiments.
• Ability to identify the riskiest aspects of a new idea and enthusiastically prioritize derisking those areas before committing to a path forward.
• Capable of working with deep focus and pivoting quickly to new workflows on a moment's notice.
• You should be energized by contributing to a high-performing team, and able to leverage and develop the talents of colleagues with different backgrounds and levels of experience.