Program Manager​/Associate Program Manager

Position: Program Manager / Associate Program Manager
Location: Prakāshamnagar

Pop Vax is an Indian full-stack biotech building first-in-class and best-in-class vaccines and cancer immunotherapies using machine learning-driven design and relentless empiricism. We design, develop, and manufacture our own RNA medicines end-to-end because we believe great pharmaceutical science can only flourish in tight feedback loops that iterate rapidly. Pop Vax's experimental work and clinical dose production is based at the RNA Foundry, our integrated R&D and GMP-capable clinical dose production facility in Hyderabad.

Pop Vax's north star is our goal of developing novel vaccines and therapeutics over the next decade with the cumulative ability to save 1 million lives each year – the Million Lives Mission. To that end, we are developing first-in-class vaccines against Hepatitis C Virus, Strep A, and adult pulmonary TB, broadly-protective best-in-class vaccines against COVID-19, influenza, and HPV, and precision immunotherapies against hard-to-treat solid tumours such as liver cancer and pancreatic cancer.

Our work is funded by Vitalik Buterin's Balvi Fund, the Gates Foundation, the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and Renaissance Philanthropy. Our first vaccine program will begin a Phase I clinical trial in the US in mid-2026 conducted & sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). We intend to put 6 novel vaccines and immunotherapies into Phase I clinical trials over the next 3 years.

No matter the job title, each person's role at Pop Vax is ultimately focused on helping take safe & effective new medicines that represent a step-change improvement on the current standard-of-care to the people who need them as fast as possible. If you want to work where the ambition is high, the learning curve is steep, and the work matters to billions, you'll feel at home here.

If you're excited by the idea of advancing scientific, clinical, and regulatory frontiers of vaccines and immunotherapies, spending each day developing medicines with the potential to save millions of lives, and building a generational global pharmaceutical company in India along the way – join us!

Position Overview

We are looking to hire a highly motivated Program Manager / Associate Program Manager who will play a critical role in driving execution across complex, fast-moving R&D and clinical programs. This role requires someone who is proactive, forward-thinking, comfortable getting into the weeds, and able to anticipate issues before they surface. The ideal candidate is naturally curious, thrives on cross-functional interactions, and can think from first principles to understand problems deeply and propose practical solutions.

They will work closely with all teams at Pop Vax including R&D, manufacturing, QA/QC, procurement, and operations teams to ensure rapid progress of Pop Vax's programs. This role is highly suited for growth, with opportunities to take on increasing scope, autonomy, and leadership as the organization scales. In general, we have found that smart generalists can dramatically change the trajectory of our programs for the better, radically accelerating the advancement of critical vaccines and therapeutics into the clinic for the benefit of the millions of people across the world who need them.

That generalist could be you!

Key Responsibilities

Program Planning & Coordination

Develop and maintain integrated program plans, timelines, risk registers, and resource maps.
Proactively identify dependencies, bottlenecks, and upcoming risks—forecast issues before they occur and suggest mitigation strategies.
Coordinate regular cross-functional meetings; prepare agendas, drive discussions, capture action items, and ensure follow-through.

Execution & Monitoring

Track day-to-day execution across R&D, analytical, process development, manufacturing, regulatory, and operations teams.
Dive into the details—understand experiments, processes, vendor timelines, and operational steps well enough to challenge assumptions and support problem-solving.
Escalate delays or roadblocks early, backed by clear root-cause reasoning using first-principles thinking.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Act as a…