Sr. Research Associate, ID Immunology

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States; site-based and not eligible for remote work

Salary: $74,000–$118,400 per year, plus potential bonus, incentive compensation, or equity

Company

A biotechnology company developing mRNA technologies, vaccines, and therapeutics for unmet medical needs.

What you will do

• Design, execute, and optimize antibody-binding assays using ELISA, Luminex, MSD, and Octet platforms.
• Develop competitive and capture ligand-binding assays and perform functional serological assays, including blockade and enzyme inhibition studies.
• Conduct epitope-specific enrichment and depletion studies to characterize humoral immune responses.
• Maintain mammalian cell cultures and develop cell-based assays for preclinical models and clinical samples.
• Analyze experimental data with tools such as GraphPad Prism, maintain electronic lab notebooks, and contribute to SOP development.
• Collaborate across functions, manage concurrent experiments, present findings, support assay automation, and evaluate AI-enabled workflows and emerging infectious disease technologies.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in immunology, microbiology, vaccinology, or a related field, with 2+ years of relevant experience.
• Hands-on experience with ligand-binding assays and the ability to design and execute assays with increasing independence.
• Strong attention to detail, organization, data quality, and reproducibility.
• Ability to learn quickly and adapt to evolving scientific and programmatic needs.
• Must work full-time at the Cambridge site; remote work is not available.
• Must already have US work authorization and maintain it without future immigration sponsorship.

Nice to have

• Experience working across bacterial and viral pathogen types.
• Experience collaborating in cross-functional environments and managing multiple priorities.
• Strong written, presentation, interpersonal, and scientific communication skills.
• Curiosity about drug discovery and experience proposing creative experimental designs.

Culture & Benefits

• In-person culture with a 70/30 work model emphasizing office collaboration, teamwork, and mentorship.
• Healthcare and voluntary benefit programs.
• Fitness, mindfulness, mental health, and other well-being resources.
• Family planning benefits, including fertility, adoption, and surrogacy support.
• Paid vacation, volunteer days, sabbatical, global recharge days, and a discretionary year-end shutdown.
• Savings and investment programs plus location-specific benefits.