Research Associate

About Arc Institute

Arc Institute is an independent nonprofit research organization at the interface of artificial intelligence and biology, working to accelerate scientific progress and understand the root causes of complex diseases. Founded in 2021 and based in Palo Alto, Arc partners with Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UC San Francisco.

Unlike academia, our scientists have long-term funding and industry-like resources. Unlike industry, they're free to pursue high-risk, long-term research without commercial pressures. Arc's Technology Centers and Core Investigator labs work side by side, integrating experimental and computational biology under one roof to tackle problems neither could solve alone.

Our two Institute Initiatives reflect this model in action:

• Virtual Cell Initiative: Building a full-stack virtual cell model to identify disease mechanisms and nominate drug targets,  accelerating the path from biological insight to clinical trials.
• Alzheimer's Disease Initiative: Mapping the genes, pathways, and environmental factors behind Alzheimer's disease to develop drug candidates that address root causes.

More than 300 Arconauts work together at our Palo Alto headquarters, backed by substantial long-term philanthropic funding.

Why this position could be the best job you’ve ever had 

• Join Arc's Alzheimer's Disease Initiative as the production engine behind a first-of-its-kind 3D brain-model screening program, where the cells you make drive disease-target discovery.

About the position

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Research Associate, Viral Production to join the Molecular Engineering team within the Genome Engineering Technology Center at the Arc Institute. This will be a fixed-term, 18-month position. This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

In this role, you will serve as a dedicated producer of lentivirus, supplying high-quality, well-characterized viral preps that power perturbation screening and cell engineering efforts across Arc's wet lab Tech Centers (including Genome Engineering, Cellular Models, and Mammalian Disease Models). This work directly enables the large-scale perturbation screening and cell engineering efforts behind Arc's Virtual Cell Initiative and Alzheimer's Disease Initiative (ADI). The role is focused on planning, consistency, and throughput: executing staggered production rounds ahead of demand, scaling cell expansions and production runs to reflect projected needs across requesting teams, maintaining reagent and consumable stock levels to prevent production delays, and documenting and QC'ing each lot against established standards prior to delivery.