Senior / Principal Scientist:
Synthetic Chemistry & Oligonucleotide Delivery

Pay: $100,000 – $180,000 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:

A fundamental challenge for nucleic acid therapeutics is achieving efficient and targeted delivery outside of the liver. 

We are looking for an exceptional and creative synthetic chemist to help develop the next generation of delivery chemistries to solve this challenge. 

You will play a hands-on and leading role in developing novel oligonucleotide conjugates and delivery approaches. You will work closely with our in-house cell biology, immunology, and in vivo teams to translate novel chemistries into tested therapeutic candidates.

This role reports directly to the Associate Director, Oligonucleotide Chemistry and to the CEO.

About You:

You have a PhD in Chemistry, Materials Science or a related field and demonstrated expertise in ONE or more of:

Bioconjugation & Delivery Chemistry:

Design, synthesis, and characterization of delivery-enabling oligonucleotide linkers and conjugates—including carbohydrate, peptide, lipid, or polymer ligands. Experience with established hepatic delivery platforms (e.g., GalNAc) is also highly valued as a transferable foundation for extrahepatic delivery.

Oligonucleotide Synthesis & Purification:

Solid-phase synthesis, deprotection, purification, and characterization of RNA and DNA oligonucleotides (e.g., siRNA, ASOs), including backbone, sugar, and base modifications. Experience with purification methods such as HPLC, ion-exchange, reversed-phase, size-exclusion chromatography, or PAGE.

Medicinal Chemistry of Oligonucleotides:

Structure–activity relationship (SAR) studies to optimize oligonucleotide, conjugate, and linker chemistries—including cleavable and non-cleavable linkers—with the goal of improving candidate stability, biodistribution, pharmacokinetics (PK), and in vivo potency.

Nice to Have (But Not Required):

  • Proficiency with LC-MS or related analytical methods to assess purity, identity, product quality, or PK and biodistribution

  • Experience with formulation and particle engineering approaches relevant to nucleic acid therapeutics, including spray drying, lyophilization, or dry-powder inhalation (DPI)

  • Experience testing therapeutic candidate safety and efficacy in vitro or in vivo 

  • Experience with synthesis scale-up or managing external CDMOs

What You’ll Do:

  • Develop novel oligonucleotide chemistries and conjugates for first-in-class therapeutic candidates to enable potent extrahepatic targeting.

  • Develop and optimize linker chemistries (cleavable or stable) to tune candidate stability, biodistribution, and pharmacokinetics.

  • Collaborate with formulation, cell biology, and in vivo teams to translate chemical designs into preclinical candidates.

  • Mentor junior scientists and help grow the synthetic chemistry team.

  • Work with external partners (e.g. CDMOs) to support synthesis scale-up as well as program advancement to cGMP and clinical trials

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, qualifications, and business needs.