Senior Research Associate, Viral Production (Fixed-Term Contract)
Palo Alto, CA$84.3k - $106kfixed-term contractPosted 1w ago
About the role
Senior Research Associate focused on scalable production of lentivirus to support perturbation screening and cell engineering across Arc Institute’s wet lab Tech Centers, with a target 18-month fixed-term contract and no visa sponsorship.
Responsibilities
- Execute staggered rounds of lentivirus production, from small-scale (24- and 96-well formats) to large-scale pooled-library productions, using suspension and/or adherent systems.
- Concentrate, filter, and aliquot virus into single-use aliquots, and perform quality control on each lot including functional titration on target cell lines to meet acceptance criteria.
- Coordinate cross-functionally to forecast demand, scale and schedule production rounds to meet requested teams' needs and the ADI screening calendar.
- Maintain rigorous documentation of production runs, titer/QC outcomes, and viral inventory in Benchling; track aliquots and metadata.
- Troubleshoot failed productions, escalate and reschedule to maintain supply continuity.
- Maintain inventory of reagents, media, and consumables, including proactive procurement.
- Help establish and refine an end-to-end viral production platform from demand intake to final delivery, including intake system, plasmid hand-off, and QC standards.
- Contribute to process optimization to improve scale, quality, and lot-to-lot consistency.
Qualifications
- BS degree in a relevant field with 4+ years of experience, or MS degree with 2+ years of postgraduate experience; industry or core-facility viral production experience preferred.
- Proficiency in mammalian cell culture and aseptic techniques, with hands-on experience producing lentivirus at scale using suspension (LV-MAX) and/or adherent systems.
- Ability to execute multi-step production protocols reproducibly across rounds.
- Experience with viral titration and QC methods.
- Experience with filtering, single-use aliquoting, cryopreservation, and inventory management of viral stocks.
- Meticulous documentation and strong organization, planning, and time-management skills; ability to manage staggered production schedules and anticipate demand.
- Familiarity with reagent inventory, operations management, and LIMS/ELN platforms (e.g., Benchling).
- Excellent communication and cross-team coordination skills.
- Onsite work in Palo Alto, CA 5 days per week; occasional extended hours or weekends may be required.
Skills
Required:Lentivirus production at scaleMammalian cell cultureViral titration and QCInventory managementBenchling / LIMS / ELNDocumentation & record-keeping
Last updated Oct 14, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
About Arc Institute
A full-stack institute for AI and biology research.
Arc Institute is a nonprofit research organization headquartered in Palo Alto, California.
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