HTS Associate

COMPANY

Octant is a clinical stage drug discovery company developing correctors for protein misfolding diseases with active programs in rare diseases and oncology. Octant’s platform, The Navigator, combines high-throughput synthetic biology, generative chemistry, and AI/ML to discover and develop therapeutics against complex cellular mechanisms in human cells.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Octant is seeking a High-Throughput Screening (HTS) Associate to join our team, where we develop, scale, and execute the high-throughput screening platform for Octant’s drug discovery programs.

As an HTS Associate, you will:

• Execute critical workflows of our high-throughput screening and synthetic chemistry platforms, generating key decision-making data for our drug discovery programs
• Operate and maintain our automation equipment, including our state-of-the-art integrated screening systems
• Coordinate closely with the team to schedule, plan, and prioritize across multiple lab activities
• Continually improve our workflows and help troubleshoot issues to make our platform operations more robust and effective

THIS JOB MIGHT BE GREAT FOR YOU IF YOU:

• Are familiar with basic biology and/or chemistry lab techniques
• Are excited to learn and master new skills, including mammalian tissue culture, chemical synthesis, and lab automation
• Are an excellent communicator, both verbal and written, and can coordinate proactively across multiple stakeholders
• Are exceptionally detail-oriented
• Are focused on clean execution – you love getting things done well
• Have relevant lab experience (including course labwork)
• Have experience operating automated laboratory instruments

You are motivated by Octant’s mission and have a team-first mindset. You will be expected to learn quickly and take pride and ownership in doing your work with care and urgency. We want to find the best candidate for the job, and that candidate may come from a less traditional background. If you have other skills and experiences that you feel help you to thrive in a fast-paced and dynamic startup environment, we want to meet you. In your application, please highlight something you’re proud of, inside or outside of science!

Schedule: This is an onsite, hourly position requiring regular Sunday work to support screening operations and laboratory automation. The remaining hours can be scheduled flexibly across weekdays, with an anticipated average of 35-40 hours per week.

The base pay rate is $24-28/hr depending on experience level. We offer health benefits (medical, dental, vision), equity, and 401(k) matching.

Octant is located in Emeryville, California and our team works onsite.

Octant is an equal opportunity company that values applicants of all backgrounds. We’re committed to fostering an inclusive and supportive work environment. We value less traditional backgrounds, and may consider an equivalent combination of knowledge, skills, education, and experience to meet minimum qualifications. We know that confidence-gap and imposter syndrome can get in the way of meeting spectacular candidates, so please don’t hesitate to apply — we’d love to hear from you.

OCTANT’S NAVIGATOR PLATFORM:

Octant’s Platform, “The Navigator,” accelerates the design, build, test, and learn iterations across chemistry and biology to build drugs against cellular mechanisms. The Navigator is an expanding set of drug discovery and development capabilities with three interwoven components that operate together: 

• Generative Biology – Multiplexed measurements from engineered sensors in human cells to understand cellular mechanisms
• Generative Chemistry – Nanoliter-scale chemical synthesis for rapid exploration of local & targeted chemical space 
• Generative AI – ML/AI ingests large-scale biological and chemical datasets and drives iteration of experiments to build better molecules faster

Together, the Navigator platform drives week-to-week progress on our drug programs, generative 3M+ readouts each week across multiple therapeutic areas.