About Raven:
We are Raven, RA Capital’s healthcare incubator. From discovery to delivery, whether we incubate, accelerate or rejuvenate, Raven’s goal is to turn scientific breakthroughs into transformative therapies and get them quickly, safely and efficiently to the patients that need them most. Raven’s experienced scientists, operators, and healthcare innovators have deep sector expertise across therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and services. They have brought hundreds of therapeutics into development, managed hospital systems, optimized clinical trials and navigated payor and regulatory systems to deliver patient impact - and they are ready to work with you.
About RA Capital:
Founded in 2004, RA Capital Management is a multi-stage investment manager dedicated to evidence-based investing in public and private healthcare, life sciences, and planetary health companies. RA Capital creates and funds innovative companies, from private seed rounds to public follow-on financings, allowing management teams to drive value creation from inception through commercialization and beyond. RA Capital's knowledge engine is guided by our TechAtlas internal research division, and Raven, RA Capital’s company building team, offers entrepreneurs and innovators a collaborative and comprehensive platform to explore the novel and the re-imagined. RA Capital has more than 150 employees and over $10 billion in assets under management.
Company Background
We are a well-funded, stealth-mode biotechnology focused on next generation oligo-based modalities targeting tissues beyond the liver, muscle, and kidney. We are building
a platform to deliver oligos with high precision to previously untargeted cells, while focused on “undruggable” genes, alone or in combination with previously validated targets. Many of our targets carry "pipeline-in-a-drug" potential: a single gene or protein with meaningful biological effects across multiple disease areas. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company was incubated in RA Capital’s venture group (Raven) and is led by an experienced CEO. After a robust incubation and vetting process, Raven StealthCo was launched and funded by RA Capital. The company’s therapeutic areas of interest lie outside commonly targeted cells and tissues, and represent multi-billion-dollar markets that are continuing to grow as the
population ages. Our initial focus is creating transformational therapies to treat diseases, but given the platform potential, we have longer-term ambitions to address healthy aging. These targets are backed by strong biological and genetic evidence but have historically resisted small molecule and biologic approaches. Raven StealthCo is moving quickly to address multiple disease indications at scale and with significant market potential.
Opportunity
We are in the discovery stage and will invest heavily in its emerging platform for oligonucleotide delivery. Our disease focus offers strong translatability from animal models to humans, which provides a potentially rapid and efficient path to the clinic. Given our recent funding and commitment to building a first-in-class platform with clear therapeutic targets and indications, we are recruiting a Scientist, Conjugation Chemistry. This individual will be responsible for technical planning and production of our antibody/peptide-oligonucleotide conjugates for our targeted delivery platform.
The Position
The Scientist, Conjugation Chemistry will report directly to the Director of Oligonucleotide and Conjugation Chemistry and will interface frequently with members of the delivery group and cross-functional teams to advance oligonucleotide therapeutic programs. This individual will help define and execute the chemical strategy to produce oligonucleotide conjugates in an efficient and timely manner. As a lab-based role, this person will assist in the implementation and use of scientific and analytical equipment to yield high-quality conjugate materials.
Specific responsibilities for the Scientist, Conjugation Chemistry include:
- Define and implement reproducible technical protocols to develop oligonucleotide conjugates for biological evaluation in our targeted delivery platform
- Develop conjugation strategies (cysteine, lysine, glycan, site-specific, etc.) to yield stable and well-characterized oligonucleotide conjugates
- Design and incorporate linker chemistries for oligonucleotide conjugates to optimize PKPD properties
- Assist in internal lab build, procuring and utilizing equipment to enable conjugation and purification of antibody/peptide-oligonucleotide conjugates
- Assist analytical scientists in developing methods (HPLC, MS, etc.) to characterize oligonucleotide conjugates
- Work hand-in-hand with protein engineers and biologists to ensure timely and adequate preparation of oligonucleotide conjugates for biological evaluation as well as contribute to the design of in vitro and in vivo studies
- Contribute to intellectual property around oligonucleotide-conjugates for the company
The Scientist, Conjugation Chemistry should be a doer with the ability to generate high-quality conjugate materials efficiently and effectively, while contributing to the interpretation of complex scientific data. This person should have direct experience working on antibody, protein, or peptide-based conjugation platforms with a significant background in chemistry and/or protein engineering. This person must demonstrate strong technical skills, taking novel ideas from paper and executing to turn them into rigorous and demonstrable results.
Key qualifications for the Scientist, Conjugation Chemistry include:
- A degree (BS/MS/PhD) in chemistry, protein engineering, or a related discipline with 3+ years of experience working with antibody, protein, or peptide conjugates in the biopharmaceutical industry; title will be commensurate with level of qualifications and experience
- Experience working with oligonucleotide-based therapeutic modalities such as siRNAs and ASOs is a plus
- Adept in state-of-the-art conjugation (cysteine-maleimide, click chemistry, site-specific, etc.), purification (HPLC, SEC, IEX, etc.), and analytical (HPLC, LCMS, etc.) methods to prepare oligonucleotide conjugates
- While demonstrating creativity to contribute to the development of novel delivery systems, this individual must also be process- and detail-oriented to ensure production of high-quality oligonucleotide conjugates
- Imperative that this individual be an effective communicator and proven team-player, with the ability to operate independently in a laboratory setting
At a personal level, we are seeking an individual who is highly collaborative, intellectually curious, driven, trustworthy, humble, and who brings an adaptable and flexible working style. The Scientist, Conjugation Chemistry must be highly organized, thoughtful, and bring sound judgement and technical decision-making abilities. The company is creating a culture of highly engaged colleagues who put the team and the science above the self and operate with a sense of urgency. As such, the Scientist, Conjugation Chemistry should be highly nuanced in terms of their interpersonal style and able to lead and work effectively within a highly collaborative, entrepreneurial, and fast-paced start-up environment.
From an educational perspective, we are seeking an individual with a Ph.D. and/or BS/MS in a relevant discipline such as chemistry or protein engineering. It is understood that education, while an important index of achievement, orientation, and intellectual capacity, will not constitute the primary variable in this decision process. Personal characteristics, leadership abilities, technical fluency, creativity, work ethic, behavioral flexibility, and demonstrated accomplishments will serve as key components in the evaluation of candidates. This person will be based on-site at the company’s headquarters in Cambridge, MA.
The base salary range reflects our good faith estimate at the time of posting. Final compensation will depend on factors like experience, skills, and location. The role may also be eligible for an annual bonus and long-term incentives. Compensation and benefits may be updated in the future.
Salary base range$120,000—$170,000 USD