Scientist I, Discovery

The Role

We are seeking a highly capable and proactive Scientist I to join our Cambridge, MA team. In this role, you will leverage our proprietary biodiversity knowledge to develop transformative solutions in gene editing and cellular engineering.

You are an energetic and highly motivated scientist with broad experience in gene editing, NGS assay development, and protein engineering. You're comfortable with cutting-edge tools in molecular biology, cellular engineering, and high-throughput screening, with demonstrated expertise in developing and productionizing new assays. This is a collaborative position working closely with our Data Science and AI teams to tackle some of the most exciting and unique challenges in the field.

Key Responsibilities

Contribute to new methods for discovery and engineering of novel gene editing tools. You will work closely with other team members. Responsibilities include:

• Contribute to strategy for design, build, test cycles of novel protein enzymes, with a strong emphasis on discovery, validation, and engineering of novel gene editing tools;

• Build and screen plasmid libraries, and develop the cloning workflows that let us do it at scale;

• Quantify editing outcomes using ddPCR, qPCR, flow-cytometry and NGS readouts.

• Optimise hits for activity and specificity using human primary cells and cell lines to develop leads for therapeutic development;

• Contribute to an open and high-integrity scientific culture at Basecamp Research;

• Establish strong documentation practices and lab SOPs as a founding member of the lab team.

Required Skills and Experience

• A PhD in molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, bioengineering, or a life-sciences related field, or an MSc with equivalent hands-on laboratory experience.

• Experience with gene editing, NGS assay development, protein engineering and cell therapy;

• Experience with high-throughput methods of cloning and producing DNA constructs for cellular screening;

• Experience with mammalian cell culture, transfection, and cell-line generation;

• Knowledge of emerging technologies in gene editing and on/off-target analytics that enable regulatory approval;

• Expertise with DNA/RNA extraction, PCR, ddPCR, NGS library preparation and QC

• Excellent communication skills to both internal and external stakeholders

Advantageous Skills and Experience

• Experience contributing to a preclinical cell therapy program (in vivo or ex vivo);

• Expertise in flow cytometry using both antibody panels and fluorescent reporters;

• Experience developing novel methods for gene editing off-target analytics using both long and short-read sequencing;

• Mechanistic understanding of gene editing tools, including nucleases, base editors, transposons, retrotransposons, and recombinases; Ability to reason about proteins as molecular machines;

• Experience integrating AI protein design tools with high-throughput wet lab screening methodologies;

• Fluency in NGS instrumentation, basic bioinformatics tools, and traceable data pipelines.

• Proactive Problem-Solving: A proactive, resourceful, and independent mindset. You take initiative to identify problems or inefficiencies and act on them. You’re the kind of person who spots an issue and rallies the right people to fix it before it escalates.

• Adaptability: Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change. Our environment evolves quickly – you should thrive in a dynamic setting and be flexible in adjusting plans, while maintaining a positive, can-do attitude.

• Ownership & Drive: High degree of ownership over your work. You care about outcomes and reliably follow through on tasks and take pride in delivering quality results.

What we offer in return

• Impactful Mission: This is a rare opportunity to do work that genuinely matters. You'll join a talented, fast-moving team, access unique biological datasets at scale, and see your contributions shape real breakthroughs in AI and curative therapeutics.

• Collaborative Culture: You'll be surrounded by world-class engineers, scientists, and researchers who care deeply about their work and about each other. With offices in Boston and London, we've built a flexible, cross-functional environment where personal development and real ownership aren't just talking points.

• High Growth: We truly believe in investing our top talent, we make coaching available to team members during steep growth journeys and we have twice yearly promotion opportunities. People who are really successful here own it and go directly to solve problems at pace and we ensure reward increases with impact.

• Comprehensive Benefits: We've built a benefits package people value. That means competitive salary, equity, and healthcare so strong that most employees' family members opt into our plan over their own. We also offer Carrot Fertility with IVF stipend, 401(k), life insurance, and more.

Salary range for this role is depending on skills and experience: $110K - $140K base