Associate Director – SeaBridge

Associate Director – Sea Bridge

The Allen Institute accelerates science for a healthier world through large-scale research designed to answer some of the most complex questions in biology. Our multi-disciplinary teams generate foundational knowledge, tools, and data to understand how our brain, cells, and immune system work. We share our work openly so others can build on it, move faster, and ask bigger questions. We drive discovery forward and create new possibilities for improving human health.

Join us on the ground floor to shape the future of programmable cell therapies. Sea Bridge, a new translational incubator powered by Sea Hub technology, is looking for an innovative immunologist to join our founding team. You'll help launch and shape the incubator while driving our allogeneic (off-the-shelf) CAR-T cell therapy program.

We're looking for someone with deep expertise in human iPSC culture, differentiation, synthetic biology, and genome engineering. You will develop robust platforms to derive and engineer iPSC-derived T-cell products and build next-generation control systems that integrate genome editing, signal-responsive recording, and state-dependent actuation to enhance therapeutic potency, persistence, and safety.

At the Allen Institute, we believe that science is for everyone – and should be open to everyone. We are dedicated to combating biases and reducing barriers to STEM careers more broadly. We also believe that science is better when it includes different perspectives and voices. We strive to make the Allen Institute a place where everyone feels like they belong and are empowered to do their best work in a supportive environment.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and strongly encourage people from all backgrounds to apply for our open positions.

• Lead the design and advancement of an allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy platform based on iPSC-derived T cells
• Develop and apply genome engineering and synthetic biology strategies to improve therapeutic potency, persistence, safety, and overall product performance
• Build, optimize, and scale iPSC engineering, maintenance, and differentiation workflows to support platform and product development
• Design and execute studies to generate, characterize, and evaluate engineered cell products across molecular, phenotypic, and functional readouts
• Advance platform innovation through thoughtful experimental design, rigorous data interpretation, and iterative optimization
• Partner closely with cross-functional colleagues to support the translational advancement of engineered cell therapy programs

• Ph.D. in a relevant life sciences or engineering discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• 5+ years of relevant postdoctoral and/or industry experience in immune cell engineering, stem cell engineering, synthetic biology, translational research, or a related field
• Experience with mammalian genome engineering and synthetic regulatory system design

Leadership & Track Record

• 7+ years leading T-cell therapeutics discovery
• Demonstrated leadership and mentorship, advancing research platforms from concept through experimental validation and translational application

Technical & Scientific Expertise

• Experience with human iPSC engineering and differentiation, ideally toward immune cell lineages
• Experience with primary and/or iPSC-derived T-cell engineering; allogeneic platform experience is a plus
• CAR design, optimization, and multiplexed engineering (e.g., transgene-encoded synthetic outputs, small-molecule-regulated CAR activity)
• CRISPR/Cas9 and Cas
  12b gene editing, plus protein engineering (site-directed/error-prone mutagenesis)
• Familiarity with viral and non-viral cell engineering methods
• Cellular/molecular assay development, qualification, and tech transfer (ddPCR, cytotoxicity, flow-based potency assays) for internal use and external partner handoff
• Experience with sequencing-based analysis, immune phenotyping, and quantitative evaluation of engineered systems

Collaboration & Communication

• Experience contributing to innovative research programs in collaborative,…