Senior Scientist, Applied Immunology
At Parallel Bio, we are leveraging the human immune system to unlock safer, more effective drugs. We believe immunotherapies are the future of medicine, but their discovery is hindered by outdated models that fail to capture the complexity of the human immune system.
Our platform overcomes these challenges by combining best-in-class human immune organoids with massive scale and advanced computational methods, including AI and machine learning. This allows us to generate unprecedented, population-scale insights into human health and disease.
We can rapidly discover new drugs that we know will work in patients from the start and understand how they will perform across an entire population—something not possible with today's technology. This knowledge will allow us to engineer therapies that will work for as many people as possible, ensuring a safe and effective cure for everyone.
We are a fast-paced, venture-backed company at a pivotal moment of growth. Join us on our journey as we create new tools to push the boundaries of what is possible.
The Role
Our platform models human immune responses in structured tissue, not dissociated cells. What makes that valuable is not the tissue engineering - it is the ability to recognize what organized immune tissue is showing you that simpler systems cannot, and to design experiments whose outputs connect to decisions in drug development. This is a role where the quality of the questions you ask matters as much as the quality of the execution. The most common failure in platform biology is invisible: technically sound experiments that never ask a question only this system could answer.
We are looking for a scientist who understands how immune function emerges from tissue-level architecture, who has enough proximity to drug development to know what translatable evidence looks like, and who designs experiments that produce it. You will own the core experimental workflow: tissue culture, perturbation, and biological interpretation. You will also run experiments, execute partner studies, and grow into building a team of your own.
Who You Are
You understand immune biology at the tissue level, not just the cell level. You have developed intuition for how tissue architecture shapes immune outcomes, whether through work with ex vivo human tissue, spatial biology, mucosal immunology, or related systems. You recognize that what happens in organized lymphoid tissue is categorically different from what you observe in PBMCs or suspension culture, and you can articulate why.
You know what translatable data looks like. You do not need to have worked in clinical development, but you have enough adjacency to drug development to know what a development team would need from your data to make a decision. You design experiments with that endpoint in mind, not as an afterthought.
You are quantitative and comfortable with data. You explore your own datasets, write code when it helps, and build intuition from data directly. You do not need to be a computational biologist, but you think quantitatively about experimental design and are energized by working at the interface of bench science and computation.
You hold competing biological explanations without collapsing prematurely. You distinguish clearly between what data is consistent with and what it demonstrates. You are comfortable saying you do not know yet while remaining rigorous about investigation.
You are energized by being part of an interdependent team. You thrive when your work is tightly coupled with others, when you can see how what you do shapes what the team can do. As the function grows, you look forward to mentoring junior scientists and building something beyond your own contributions.
What You'll Do
Own the core experimental workflow: culture human immune tissue models, design and execute perturbation experiments, and interpret the results biologically.
Ensure that experimental designs produce data that is not only scientifically rigorous but translationally relevant. Connect what you observe at the bench to what would matter for drug development decisions.
Collaborate closely with measurement and computational biology teams. Your biological interpretation shapes what the platform investigates next; their work ensures the measurements are trustworthy and the analysis is rigorous.
Work with automation teams to ensure experimental workflows are compatible with robotic and liquid-handling systems as the platform scales.
Execute platform studies and partner-contracted work across the full experimental loop.
Contribute to the scientific strategy for expanding the platform into new tissue contexts and disease areas.
Produce clear experimental documentation, contribute to reports and presentations, and support partner communications where scientific context is needed.
Qualifications
PhD in immunology, cell biology, or a closely related life sciences discipline.
5+ years of experience in biotech, pharma, or a research environment with exposure to translational or drug development contexts.
Deep understanding of lymphoid tissue biology, secondary lymphoid organ function, or tissue-level immune organization. This can come from multiple backgrounds: ex vivo tissue studies, spatial transcriptomics or proteomics of immune tissue, mucosal immunology, or related fields.
Strong hands-on experience with 3D culture systems, primary human tissue models, or complex cell culture, including practical knowledge of media optimization, matrix composition, and culture troubleshooting.
Familiarity with immunological characterization methods: flow cytometry, multiplex immunoassays, and imaging-based readouts.
Demonstrated comfort with quantitative analysis: scripting (Python, R, or equivalent), data visualization, and working directly with complex datasets.
Experience developing disease-relevant immune models (e.g., autoimmune, inflammatory, or immuno-oncology contexts) is valued.
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.