# Head of Platform Bioengineering & Assay Development at Parallel Bio

- Company: Parallel Bio (YC S21)
- What the company does: Using the immune system to cure disease. Backed by Y Combinator.
- Company website: http://parallel.bio
- Type: Startups (AI role)
- Level: Principal and up
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- Work setup: On-site
- Pay: $203K to $229K base salary per year (USD)
- Posted: 2026-09-19
- Apply by: 2026-11-03
- Apply: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/parallel-bio/jobs/RWriFOi-head-of-platform-bioengineering-assay-development
- Page: https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/parallel-bio-head-of-platform-bioengineering-and-assay-development-2/

## About the role

As Principal Scientist, you will lead the science at our San Francisco site. You will manage our team of scientists and research associates, set experimental strategy, and own the scientific decisions that determine where we invest our experimental effort. You will remain personally at the bench on the hardest problems.

## What they're looking for

- A deeply experienced experimental scientist. You have spent your career developing complex biological assays and understand how difficult it is to make living systems behave reproducibly
- A rigorous troubleshooter. When data are ambiguous, you design experiments that distinguish competing explanations rather than relying on intuition alone
- A systems thinker. You understand that biological performance emerges from the interaction of cells, reagents, protocols, operators, instruments, automation, software, and data systems
- Hands-on. You are comfortable setting scientific strategy and equally comfortable going to the bench when a difficult problem requires it
- Comfortable with ambiguity. You can bring structure to immature technologies without imposing unnecessary bureaucracy or pretending uncertainty does not exist
- Mission driven. You are excited by the opportunity to replace animal models with scalable human biology and fundamentally change how medicines are discovered

Tags: Engineering