Scientist, HIV Virology

Job description

THE MISSION Drug discovery has a translation problem: more than 95% of drugs that succeed in animal models fail in humans. We're building the alternative: human-first drug discovery, powered by organoids and AI, running on real human biology from the very first experiment. Our platform is 87% concordant with clinical patient data - a vast improvement over the 3% translational success rate of animals. We’ve demonstrated the ability to model immunotoxicology, immunogen stimulation, and two autoimmune diseases with more on the way. Numerous pharma partners including 3 Fortune 500 companies are already using the platform. We've raised ~$30M from AIX Ventures, Marc Benioff, Jeff Dean, and Y Combinator. With the FDA Modernization Act 3.0 and the FDA's March 2026 validation framework, the regulatory tailwinds only continue to get stronger. The opportunity ahead of the company is generational: build the first scaled engine for generating real human biological data, and use it to fundamentally change how medicines are discovered. THE ROLE HIV research is about to need a new home. You're building it. The U.S. government is moving rapidly toward banning animal models in drug discovery, with the sharpest restrictions aimed at nonhuman primates. NHPs are currently the only animal model for HIV. When they go away, the only path left to discover and develop drugs against HIV in real human tissue runs through human immune organoids. That's our platform. We need someone to come in and stand up our HIV program from scratch — equipment, reagents, biosafety, assays, SOPs, the whole stack — so that when the first HIV-based project lands at Parallel Bio, the lab is already ready to run it. You'll be the in-house HIV expert — the person every team turns to for the science, the safety, and the bench craft. This is a foundational scientist hire on a program that could become one of the company's most strategically important assets. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Build the HIV lab from the ground up. Equipment, reagents, SOPs, controls — the whole stack, ready before the first project arrives - Be the in-house HIV expert. When the company has questions about HIV biology, virology, or assay design, you've got all the answers. - Stand up the assay menu. Viral load, infectivity, latency reactivation, neutralization, integration, replication kinetics — every assay we'd plausibly need, set up, validated, and ready to run. - Execute the experiments. Project leads hand you experiments. You run them with rigor, think critically about what the data is showing, and make smart real-time adjustments when reality diverges from the plan. - Co-own biosafety. Run a lab that meets the BSL2+ bar in both letter and spirit, and stays that way, working with our Head of Technical Operations. DAY ONE, WEEK ONE, MONTH ONE - Day one. Meet the Platform and R&D leads. Tour the facility. See the BSL2+ setup as it stands today, and start the list of what's missing. - Week one. Map the gap between where the lab is and "ready to run an HIV project tomorrow." Start ordering, drafting SOPs, and pulling the supplies and reagents together. - Month one. The lab is functionally HIV-ready: biosafety in place, core assays validated, reagents in stock, SOPs written, controls established. You're confident answering "yes, we can run that" to any reasonable HIV question that comes our way. WHO YOU ARE - An HIV virologist, full stop. You're a current or recent postdoc from a top-tier HIV lab. You know the field, the players, the assays, the controls, and where every experiment tends to break. - Fluent in BSL2+. You've worked under BSL2+ conditions for years. You understand the regulatory and safety stack cold and can run a lab that holds up to it. - Master of HIV assays. You’re deeply familiar with standard HIV assays to measure things like viral load, infectivity, latency, neutralization, integration, and replication kinetics. - Strong in immunology and T cell biology. You know the immunology side as deeply as the virology. - Bench-first by design. You bring the rigor, the judgment, and the hands-on craft that turn experimental plans into real data. - Energized by the build. Standing up something from scratch is your idea of a great first year. You want ownership, responsibility, and direct proximity to the people setting direction. - Sharp at the bench. When an experiment isn't behaving, you can read what's happening, adjust on the fly, and bring real scientific thinking to the troubleshoot, not just rerun the protocol. BONUS POINTS If you have any of these, great. None are required — we'll get you up to speed on whatever you need. - Hands-on experience with organoid or 3D culture systems - Experience with single-cell, multi-omic, or high-content imaging readouts - Background spanning HIV virology and broader infectious disease work - Comfort working alongside hardware engineers and platform scientists in a hands-on R&D environment Parallel Bio is building human-first drug discovery: 10x faster, 1000x cheaper, 0 animals killed. Parallel Bio is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful workplace. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, or sexual orientation.