Senior / Principal Scientist: Nucleic Acid Chemistry & Delivery

About Us:

Founded in 2017 by scientists from Harvard Medical School and UCSF, Autonomous Therapeutics is pioneering target-activated nucleic acid medicines for diseases ranging from influenza to metastatic cancer.

Our mission is simple but transformative:

To create antiviral and cancer therapies that act only in diseased cells—eliminating off-target effects.

We are a team of 20+ PhD scientists and engineers, working out of a 18,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art R&D facility in Rockville, Maryland, integrating chemistry, biology, robotics, and machine learning to build the next generation of precision medicines.

About the Job:

A core challenge in nucleic acid therapeutics is achieving efficient, tissue-specific delivery outside the liver. This role is central to solving that challenge.

As a Senior Scientist in Nucleic Acid Chemistry & Delivery, you will design and build delivery-enabling chemistries that directly power our therapeutic platform. You will play a hands-on role in inventing, synthesizing, and optimizing oligonucleotide conjugates and delivery strategies, working closely with in-house biology, in vivo, and engineering teams to translate chemistry into curative medicines.

You will report directly to the President of R&D and the Chief Scientific Officer, with meaningful influence over scientific direction and platform development.

What You’ll Do:

  • Design, synthesize, and optimize nucleic acid constructs and conjugates for in vivo delivery

  • Develop delivery-enabling conjugation strategies, including ligand-, peptide-, lipid-, polymer-, or small-molecule-based approaches

  • Iteratively optimize chemistry to improve stability, biodistribution, pharmacokinetics (PK), cellular uptake, and potency

  • Design and evaluate cleavable linker strategies (e.g., enzymatic, redox-sensitive, pH-labile) to balance systemic stability with intracellular activity

  • Collaborate cross-functionally with biology and in vivo teams to connect chemical design with therapeutic outcomes

  • Contribute to experimental strategy, data interpretation, and internal scientific discussions

  • Support scale-up, tech transfer, or external CDMO interactions as programs advance

Who You Are:

You are a hands-on, inventive scientist who enjoys building new chemistry and seeing it translated into real medicines. You are comfortable operating independently while collaborating deeply across disciplines.

Qualifications:

  • Ph.D. in Chemistry, Chemical Biology, or a closely related field

  • 4+ years of post-Ph.D. experience in nucleic acid chemistry, conjugation chemistry, or drug delivery

  • Deep expertise in at least one of the following core areas:

    • Model development in vivo: Developing viral or oncology models in mice (e.g. respiratory viral infection models, tumor models, models in immunodeficient mice).

    • Therapeutic or Vaccine studies in vivo: Testing and probing countermeasure candidates in mouse models for any indication, including: viruses, solid tumor cancers, or autoimmune diseases.

    • Immunology in vivo: Expertise isolating immune and other cells from mice (e.g. from blood, lungs, liver, lymph nodes, and spleen) as well as expertise in analyses, including: RT-qPCR, in vivo imaging (IVIS), and flow cytometry.

  • Additional expertise in at least of the following areas is highly preferred:

    • Virology: Expertise developing and testing antivirals: e.g. for respiratory viral indications (e.g. via inhaled delivery) or in immunodeficient models

    • Cancer Biology: Expertise probing novel cancer medicines or detection modalities, including: monoclonal antibodies, immunotherapies, or cell therapies (e.g. CAR-T)

    • Nucleic Acid Medicines: Expertise with mRNA, siRNA, oligonucleotide, or gene therapies, or with novel methods of nucleic acid delivery (e.g. conjugation, LNP).

Why Join Autonomous Therapeutics:

  • Work on first-in-class medicines with the potential to eliminate off-target toxicity

  • Collaborate with a deeply technical, interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers

  • Gain exposure to cutting-edge robotics and AI-driven experimentation, developed in-house

  • Direct access to scientific leadership and real influence over platform direction

  • Operate in a fast-moving startup environment with strong scientific rigor and ambition

Benefits & Compensation:

Salary Range: 90,000$ - 180,000$

In addition to competitive compensation, we offer:

  • Stock options

  • Health, Dental, and Vision insurance

  • 401(k) plan with employer matching

  • Paid time off and a flexible work schedule

  • A collaborative, mission-driven culture focused on scientific excellence and impact

Location & Work Type:

  • Full-time, on-site

  • Rockville, Maryland

If you're passionate about cutting-edge research and want to make an impact, we'd love to connect!