Platform Scientist: Comparative Protein Evolution

Arcadia Science; Emeryville (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Equity offering

Job summary

A cutting-edge evolutionary biology firm in Emeryville is seeking a Platform Scientist. The role involves analyzing workflows related to protein evolution, identifying data gaps, and collaborating with cross-disciplinary teams. Candidates should possess a Ph.D. and at least one year of post-doctoral experience, coupled with expertise in computational biology and a strong ability to communicate complex scientific ideas. The compensation ranges from $130,000 to $180,000 annually, reflecting experience level and is complemented by benefits.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. or equivalent experience in a related field.
• At least 1 year of relevant scientific experience post-PhD.
• Expertise in analyzing protein features and evolutionary processes.

Responsibilities

• Produce and analyze workflows for protein information integration.
• Identify data gaps and develop strategies to address them.
• Collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams to validate tools.

Skills

Protein evolution analysis

Computational biology

Data analysis (Python or R)

Verbal and written communication

Education

Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology or related field

Tools

Genomic data analysis

Phylogenetics

Job description

A Bit About Us:

We're Arcadia Science, an evolutionary biology company founded and led by scientists. Our mission is to turn natural innovations into real-world solutions by developing systematic and quantitative approaches to leveraging biology for therapeutics R&D. We share our research as openly as possible to accelerate discovery and engage with the broader scientific community.

The Opportunity:

Arcadia is studying biology with evolution as our guide. Our tools, methods, and frameworks probe the tree of life to identify innovations, novelties, and organisms that accelerate our basic and translational research. We're seeking a scientist with deep experience in protein evolution to substantially expand our platform.

The Platform Scientist will be part of a collaborative team developing approaches to investigate protein evolution in an integrative way, considering amino acid sequences, protein structures, and protein functional variation. Scientists in this role will develop novel approaches to map and predict protein biology over macroevolutionary timescales. These contributions will be instrumental in developing new tools, validating existing tools, testing novel hypotheses, identifying knowledge and dataset gaps, and driving the creation of new computational approaches for studying protein evolution at Arcadia.

Top candidates are inventive scientists with deep experience addressing evolutionary questions related to protein characteristics to unlock novel insights. They're excited to explore new and challenging datasets, familiar with developing novel analysis pipelines, and thrive in collaborative, open research environments. Enthusiasm and participation in open science are also required as we routinely share our findings via our open-source pubs.

Key Responsibilities:

• Produce and analyse workflows to interrogate and integrate protein information across non-model clades.
• Identify existing data gaps and help develop strategies to address these to better capture and study protein variation across scales.
• Develop approaches to infer evolutionary shifts in protein composition, structure, and function over time.
• Conceptualize and prototype novel computational tools using protein information to expand Arcadia’s organism and target selection capabilities.
• Troubleshoot computational challenges independently and creatively.
• Collaborate with cross-disciplinary teams to validate computational tools, contribute to shared research goals, and accelerate broader scientific efforts.
• Synthesize ideas, data, and findings into fully open-access pubs and engage with the scientific community to maximize impact and garner feedback that improves the work.

Qualifications:

• Ph.D. or equivalent experience in Evolutionary Biology, Molecular Biology, Computational Biology, or a related field.
• At least 1 year of full-time relevant scientific experience post-PhD.
• Demonstrated expertise in analyzing protein features across biological e.g., amino acid sequence, protein structure, protein function, and evolutionary scales.
• Demonstrated expertise in the inference of evolutionary processes.
• Comfort working with data from non-model organisms and ideally across clades.
• Experience with a range of computational biology approaches, including the analysis of genomic data, phylogenetics, and protein structures (experience with protein structural inference, and/or protein language models is a plus).
• Familiarity with data analysis using tools like Python or R.
• Ability to align with the team to achieve organization-wide goals and organize effective collaborations.
• An excellent verbal and written science communicator for both general and technical audiences.

$130,000 - $180,000 a year

Successful applicants can expect to be compensated between $130,000-$180,000 with benefits and a competitive equity offering, depending on experience level. The position will require the individual to be on-site at our Emeryville, California headquarters.

Application Process:

Interested applicants should send a resume and a one-page cover letter that address their interest and qualifications for the position. When applying, be sure to answer all questions found within the online portal.

Arcadia Science is an equal opportunity workplace; we welcome people from all backgrounds and communities. We provide competitive compensation and practical benefits to keep you happy and healthy so that you can do your best work.

Please note that an offer of employment from Arcadia is contingent upon the successful clearance of a reference and background check.