Founding Cell Biologist

About the Role

You’ll work closely with the founders and a small team from MIT, Harvard Medical School, Baker Lab, and Radical Numerics.

We are looking for speed and rigor, coupled with excitement, drive and a strong work ethic. In an early-stage environment, we value people who can bring clarity to open-ended problems, take ownership of the next steps, and follow through with energy.

Capable Labs is a place for ambitious, high-integrity people who want to become dramatically better. You will be surrounded by people who care intensely about the work, get close feedback from the people making scientific and company-defining decisions, and have room to own increasingly important problems.

We believe excellent work should be met with meaningful reward, ownership, and trust. Responsibility is earned through contribution, not title alone: anyone who demonstrates the judgment, rigor, and follow-through to move important work forward can earn meaningful scope.

• Design, run, and optimize cell-based assays for GPCR pharmacology, including FLIPR calcium flux, cyclic AMP, IP1/IP accumulation, beta-arrestin recruitment, receptor internalization, membrane potential, and related fluorescence or luminescence readouts.

• Develop robust assay workflows across transient and stable cell systems, including cell culture, plating density, receptor expression, ligand stimulation, antagonist/inhibitor formats, time-course design, dose-response curves, and assay window optimization.

• Run high-quality fluorescence, luminescence, HTRF/TR-FRET, BRET, ELISA, plate-reader, and imaging-based assays to characterize potency, efficacy, selectivity, kinetics, bias, and reproducibility.

• Work closely with chemists and automation engineers to connect synthesis outputs to biological activity.

• You may come from cell biology, pharmacology, molecular biology, chemical biology, neuroscience, bioengineering, screening, assay development, or a nontraditional background. What matters is your ability to generate reliable biological data from complex cell-based systems.

• You proactively troubleshoot workflows. When an assay fails, a plate looks unusual, a curve is noisy, or a compound result does not make sense, you systematically identify the root cause and improve the workflow before the same issue repeats.

• You have hands-on experience running cell-based assays. Experience with GPCR signaling assays such as FLIPR calcium flux, cAMP, IP1/IP accumulation, beta-arrestin, or receptor trafficking is helpful but not required. We can teach specific assay formats.

• $120,000-$ salary, plus equity options with an implied current value of approximately $50,000-$200,000 before exercise cost, taxes, dilution, and liquidity risk.

• Compensation will depend on the skills, experience, and scope of impact you bring. If your background, experience, or compensation needs fall outside this range, we are still open to a conversation based on the scope and impact you could bring.

• $500+ monthly wellness budget for training, supplements, coaching, recovery, or other tools that help you perform at your best.

• Healthcare:
  We offer a broad range of medical, dental, and vision coverage options, with Capable covering 100% of the base policy.

• You will also have access to HSA, FSA, and 401K plans.

• Healthy dinners with the team are provided daily.

• We support visa sponsorship where appropriate, including O-1, H-1B, J-1, TN, and other employment-based pathways. Our team is already international, with members from Canada, Pakistan, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, China, India, and the United States.

Our process is fast, transparent, and personal. We care about getting to know the person behind the application.

• Initial application

• First phone screen

• Second phone screen

• In-person work trial in San Francisco: designed to give both sides a realistic sense of working together. Get to know the founding team!

Curious but not sure? Apply anyway. It takes 5 minutes, and you do not need to be actively job searching to start a conversation.

Some of the best people do not map perfectly to a job description. If this sounds like a place where you could do important work, we would like to hear from you.

And if someone exceptional comes to mind, send them our way here. We read every referral carefully, and if your referral joins Capable, we’ll send you a thank-you bonus.