Staff Scientist Assay Development

Overview

Our mission is to detect cancer early, when it can be cured. We are working to change the trajectory of cancer mortality and bring stakeholders together to adopt innovative, safe, and effective technologies that can transform cancer care.

We are a healthcare company, pioneering new technologies to advance early cancer detection. We have built a multi-disciplinary organization of scientists, engineers, and physicians and we are using the power of next-generation sequencing (NGS), population-scale clinical studies, and state-of-the-art computer science and data science to overcome one of medicine’s greatest challenges.

GRAIL is headquartered in the bay area of California, with locations in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, and the United Kingdom. It is supported by leading global investors and pharmaceutical, technology, and healthcare companies.

For more information, please visit

• Work closely with the team of Scientists/Associate Scientists in the Development team to define projects and drive results
• Be responsible for cross functional leadership of projects with high complexity, requiring detailed planning and execution
• Translate product needs into technical requirements to define project scope, team and timeline
• Lead technical troubleshooting
• Liaison with cross functional stakeholders to come to decisions and provide solutions for team execution as needed
• Perform deep and detailed technical review of data to identify trends and issues that need further investigation and testing
• Propose new ideas to improve methodologies in the lab, being either new/continuous development, application of new technologies, modification of quality control methods
• Define plans to validate assay performance aligned with CLSI guidelines
• Become an expert in our current assay performance, with deep understanding of quality metrics and analytical performance to inform improvements and continued development
• Develop test protocols, reports and any other technical documents that are clear, direct and complete
• Work closely with Quality, Regulatory and technical writers to perfect technical documentation; iterate new versions to incorporate cross functional feedback
• Understand and address needs from the Regulatory and Quality teams for successful regulatory filings
• Provide formal management of team members, as needed
• Support on new team member hiring and onboarding, as needed
• Assist with training of new laboratory personnel and training of new procedures with existing personnel
• These responsibilities summarize the role’s primary responsibilities and are not an exhaustive list. They may change at the company’s discretion.

• Ph.D. or equivalent in Molecular Biology or other relevant field
• At least 8 years of related experience in a laboratory with high-complexity molecular assays
• Expertise in understanding and handling high dimensional datasets generated from sequencing technologies
• Former experience working with automated platforms is required
• Proficient in data analysis using R, JMP or other coding languages
• Proficient in Google Suite and Microsoft office (text editor, spreadsheets and slides)

• Former experience with methylation and cfDNA assays is a plus
• Experience with the development and implementation of clinical laboratory tests under CAP/CLIA or IVD/FDA/regulated environments is a plus

• Hours and days may vary depending on operational needs.
• Working with dry ice may be necessary.
• Standing or sitting for long periods of time may be necessary.
• May be exposed to hazardous materials, blood specimens and instruments with moving parts, heating or freezing elements, and high speed centrifugation.
• Repetitive manual pipetting may be necessary.
• Some lifting (up to 25 pounds) may be necessary

The expected, full-time, annual base pay scale for this position is $152,000 - $190,000. Actual base pay will consider skills, experience, and location.

This role may be eligible for other forms of compensation, including an annual bonus and/or incentives, subject to the terms of the applicable plans and Company discretion. This range reflects a good-faith…