Senior Veterinary Technician / Research Associate:
In Vivo Biology

Pay: $75,000 – $125,000 per year
Location: Rockville, MD (on-site)

About Us:

Founded in 2017 by scientists from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Autonomous Therapeutics is developing first-in-class nucleic acid medicines across infectious disease and oncology indications.

Our platform fuses synthetic biology and chemistry to achieve a simple goal: target-activated (precision) medicines that only activate in diseased cells. Imagine a chemotherapy that spares your healthy cells.

You would join a team of 25 PhD scientists and engineers across synthetic biology, synthetic chemistry, immunology, in vivo biology, and AI in our 20,000 sq ft R&D facility outside Washington, D.C.

The Role:

We are looking for a highly experienced and exceptional in vivo scientist or technician to perform critical in vivo studies of our therapeutic candidates and help manage the day-to-day operation of our vivarium.

You will play a key role in managing and executing in vivo studies across multiple preclinical programs and help advance first-in-class therapeutic candidates into clinical trials. This position requires a high level of responsibility and demonstrated expertise with in vivo study execution and animal care.

You will report directly to the Head of Preclinical Biology, with additional direct mentorship from the CEO.

What You’ll Do:

  • Manage and support day-to-day vivarium operations, including cage changes, animal weighing, animal health monitoring, husbandry, facility organization, and accurate record-keeping

  • Maintain high standards of animal welfare, cleanliness, and regulatory compliance

  • Perform critical in vivo safety and efficacy studies, including animal handling, dosing via multiple routes, monitoring, sample collection, necropsy support, and rigorous study documentation

  • Support technically challenging in vivo procedures, including orthotopic and other surgery-based procedures, studies requiring more intensive monitoring, and studies involving immunodeficient mice

  • Coordinate and execute multiple concurrent in vivo studies in close collaboration with senior scientists

About You:

You have 4+ years of hands-on in vivo research or veterinary technician experience and demonstrated expertise in:

Vivarium Operations & Animal Care
Supporting day-to-day animal facility activities, including cage changes, animal weighing, health monitoring, husbandry support, and facility organization.

In Vivo Study Support
Assisting with critical in vivo studies, including animal handling, dosing via multiple routes (e.g. IV, SC, IN, IP, IT), monitoring, sample collection, necropsy support, and rigorous study documentation.

Animal Research Compliance
Maintaining accurate animal and study records, supporting regulatory or IACUC protocols, and helping ensure all animal work is conducted in compliance with institutional and regulatory requirements.

Complex Mouse Study Operations
Experience working with SCID or other immunodeficient mice and managing large mouse cohorts across multiple concurrent studies in a fast-paced research environment.

Additional Expertise in One or More of the Following is Preferred:

In Vivo Safety / Efficacy Testing
Supporting or conducting studies evaluating therapeutic or vaccine candidates in mouse or rat models of infectious diseases, cancers, or other diseases.

In Vivo Model Development
Experience helping establish or execute viral infection or tumor models in mice, especially for lung or liver indications.

Immunology & Quantitative Assays
Experience isolating or analyzing key cell populations from tissues such as blood, lungs, liver, or spleen using flow cytometry, RT-qPCR, or in vivo imaging methods such as BLI / IVIS.

Surgeries & Technically Challenging Studies
Experience supporting orthotopic surgeries, survival procedures, specialized dosing procedures (e.g. intratracheal delivery), post-procedure monitoring, or other technically demanding in vivo workflows.

Why Join Us:

  • Impact:
    Help develop first-in-class cancer and infectious disease medicines.

  • Compensation:
    Highly competitive salary and equity (stock option) packages.

  • Benefits:

    • Health, dental, and vision insurance

    • 401(k) with employer matching

    • Paid time off

  • New Skills: 

    Have the opportunity to learn biology and therapeutic development or robotics and AI: our engineering team can work with you to design custom high-throughput systems to accelerate your workflow.

  • Culture:

    Work alongside a highly collaborative team of scientists and engineers in a fast-moving biotech startup & help build the next generation of precision medicines.

Hiring Info:

  • Work Authorization:

    Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States.

  • Merit-Based:

    Autonomous Therapeutics is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Hiring decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and business needs.