Senior Research Associate, Viral Production (Fixed-Term Contract)

About Arc Institute

Arc Institute is an independent nonprofit research organization at the interface of artificial intelligence and biology, working to accelerate scientific progress and understand the root causes of complex diseases. Founded in 2021 and based in Palo Alto, Arc partners with Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UC San Francisco.

Unlike academia, our scientists have long-term funding and industry-like resources. Unlike industry, they're free to pursue high-risk, long-term research without commercial pressures. Arc's Technology Centers and Core Investigator labs work side by side, integrating experimental and computational biology under one roof to tackle problems neither could solve alone.

Our two Institute Initiatives reflect this model in action:

• Virtual Cell Initiative: Building a full-stack virtual cell model to identify disease mechanisms and nominate drug targets,  accelerating the path from biological insight to clinical trials.
• Alzheimer's Disease Initiative: Mapping the genes, pathways, and environmental factors behind Alzheimer's disease to develop drug candidates that address root causes.

More than 300 Arconauts work together at our Palo Alto headquarters, backed by substantial long-term philanthropic funding.

Why this position could be the best job you’ve ever had 

• Join Arc's Alzheimer's Disease Initiative as the production engine behind a first-of-its-kind 3D brain-model screening program, where the cells you make drive disease-target discovery.

About the position

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Research Associate, Viral Production to join the Molecular Engineering team within the Genome Engineering Technology Center at the Arc Institute. This will be a fixed-term, 18-month position. This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

In this role, you will serve as a dedicated producer of lentivirus, supplying high-quality, well-characterized viral preps that power perturbation screening and cell engineering efforts across Arc's wet lab Tech Centers (including Genome Engineering, Cellular Models, and Mammalian Disease Models). This work directly enables the large-scale perturbation screening and cell engineering efforts behind Arc's Virtual Cell Initiative and Alzheimer's Disease Initiative (ADI). The role is focused on planning, consistency, and throughput: executing staggered production rounds ahead of demand, scaling cell expansions and production runs to reflect projected needs across requesting teams, maintaining reagent and consumable stock levels to prevent production delays, and documenting and QC'ing each lot against established standards prior to delivery.

As production infrastructure and standards continue to be developed, this role will contribute to process optimization efforts — supporting improvements in output scaling, cost reduction, and lot-to-lot consistency. This includes assisting with the rollout of automation and higher-throughput production formats, as well as onboarding additional viral systems.

The ideal candidate is experienced in lentivirus production at scale using suspension (e.g., LV-MAX) and/or adherent systems, and proficient in viral titration, and quality assessment. They execute and troubleshoot independently, with outstanding attention to detail and a commitment to dependable, reproducible work. They communicate proactively across teams and bring a continuous-improvement mindset to a high-volume workflow.

About you

• You take pride in producing consistent, high-quality results on a predictable schedule.
• You are diligent, meticulous, and committed to thorough documentation and good record-keeping practices.
• You are organized and plan ahead, keeping workflows, reagents, and timelines on track.
• You respect the process and are comfortable with routine execution while continuously identifying opportunities to troubleshoot and address bottlenecks.
• You communicate proactively and enjoy coordinating across teams to anticipate and meet demand.
• You thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative, team-science environment.

In this position you will

• Execute staggered rounds of lentivirus production, spanning arrayed small-scale productions (e.g., 24- and 96-well plate formats) through large-scale pooled-library productions, using suspension (LV-MAX) and/or adherent systems.
• Concentrate, filter, and aliquot virus into single-use aliquots, and perform quality control on each lot — including functional titration on relevant target cell lines — ensuring delivered virus meets the acceptance criteria defined by requesting teams.
• Help coordinate cross-functionally to forecast demand in advance, scaling and scheduling each round of production accordingly to meet the projected needs of requesting teams and the ADI screening calendar.
• Maintain rigorous, organized documentation of production runs, titer/QC outcomes, and viral inventory and distribution in Benchling (including matrix-tube aliquot tracking and metadata capture).
• Perform troubleshooting on failed productions, escalate and reschedule as needed to maintain supply continuity.
• Maintain inventory of key reagents, media, and consumables to ensure uninterrupted production, including proactive procurement.
• Help establish, refine, and run an efficient end-to-end viral production platform spanning demand intake to final delivery, including a request/intake system, plasmid hand-off, and QC standards.
• Contribute to process optimization aimed at improving the scale, quality, and lot-to-lot consistency of production.

Requirements

• BS degree in relevant field with 4+ years of relevant experience, or MS degree in relevant field with 2+ years of relevant postgraduate experience. Industry or core-facility experience in viral production is strongly preferred.
• Proficiency in mammalian cell culture procedures and associated aseptic techniques, with direct hands-on experience producing lentivirus at scale using suspension (e.g., LV-MAX) and/or adherent systems.
• Demonstrated ability to execute reproducible, multi-step production protocols consistently across repeated rounds.
• Experience with viral titration and QC methods.
• Experience with filtering, single-use aliquoting, cryopreservation, and inventory management of viral stocks.
• Meticulous documentation and record-keeping; comfort working to a production schedule, with strong organizational, planning, and time-management skills and the ability to manage staggered production schedules and anticipate demand.
• Familiarity with reagent inventory, operations management, and LIMS/ELN platforms (e.g., Benchling).
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to coordinate effectively across teams.
• Work onsite in our Palo Alto office 5 days per week. Occasional early or late hours or weekend work may be required to accommodate production schedules. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing or leveraging automation for viral production and/or titration at scale.
• Prior experience independently optimizing processes and workflows to improve viral yield, quality, and consistency.
• Hands-on experience with multiple viral production systems and protocols, including AAV production.
• Experience producing lentivirus in arrayed (plate-based) formats as well as large-scale pooled-library formats.
• Experience managing external vendor relationships for cloning and plasmid preps.

The base salary range for this position is $84,250 to $114,250. These amounts reflect the range of base salary that the Institute reasonably would expect to pay a new hire or internal candidate for this position. The actual base compensation paid to any individual for this position may vary depending on factors such as experience, market conditions, education/training, skill level, and whether the compensation is internally equitable, and does not include bonuses, commissions, differential pay, other forms of compensation, or benefits.