Senior / Principal Scientist: Oligonucleotide Delivery & Chemistry
About Us:
Founded in 2017 by scientists from Harvard Medical School and UCSF, Autonomous Therapeutics develops target-activated nucleic acid medicines across infectious disease and oncology indications.
Our platform is built around a simple idea: precision medicines that only activate in diseased cells while avoiding healthy cells.
Our team includes 25 in-house PhD scientists and engineers across synthetic chemistry, synthetic biology, in vivo biology, and AI in a 20,000 sq ft R&D facility in Rockville, Maryland.
About The Role:
A fundamental challenge in nucleic acid medicine is achieving targeted delivery outside of the liver. We are looking for an exceptional chemist to develop the next generation of delivery chemistries to solve this challenge.
You will play a hands-on role in discovering, synthesizing, and optimizing oligonucleotide conjugates and delivery strategies–working closely with our virology, immunology, and in vivo teams to translate novel chemistry into curative medicines. The title (Senior or Principal Scientist) and compensation will be commensurate with your scientific experience, depth of expertise, and demonstrated accomplishments.
You will report to the Associate Director, Oligonucleotide Chemistry, in close collaboration with the CSO.
What You’ll Do:
Design and synthesize oligonucleotide chemistries and conjugates to enable potent extrahepatic targeting.
Develop and optimize linker chemistries (cleavable or stable) to tune stability, biodistribution, and pharmacokinetics.
Collaborate cross-functionally with internal biology, formulation, and in vivo teams to translate chemistry into therapeutic candidates.
Mentor junior scientists and contribute to building scalable synthetic and analytical workflows.
Work with external partners (e.g., CROs/CDMOs) to help support program advancement to clinical trials
About You:
You have a PhD in Chemistry or a related field and demonstrated expertise in ONE or more of the following:
Bioconjugation & Delivery Chemistry:
Design and synthesis of delivery-enabling oligonucleotide conjugates (including polymer, peptide, lipid, or carbohydrate ligands). While our goal is extrahepatic delivery, deep expertise with established hepatic platforms (e.g., GalNAc) is highly valued as a transferable skill.
Oligonucleotide Synthesis:
Solid-phase synthesis and purification of RNA or DNA (e.g., siRNA, ASOs), including backbone, sugar, and base modifications.
Medicinal Chemistry of Oligonucleotides:
Optimization of linker chemistries (cleavable or stable) to tune stability, biodistribution, pharmacokinetics (PK), and potency.
Solid-State Formulation & Particle Engineering:
Experience with particle engineering approaches relevant to nucleic acid therapeutics, including spray drying, lyophilization, or dry-powder inhalation (DPI).Nice to Have (But Not Required):
Proficiency with LC-MS, HPLC, or related analytical methods to assess purity, identity, or PK / biodistribution of oligonucleotides.
Experience testing therapeutic candidates in vitro or in vivo
Experience with scale-up or managing external CDMOs.
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 cutting-edge robotics and AI: our engineering team designs custom high-throughput systems to accelerate your screening.
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, relevant skills and experience, and business needs.