Origination: Associate / Senior Associate

THE ROLE

As an Associate at Flagship Pioneering, you will work closely with Jacob (Jake) Rubens and others within his Pioneering Business Unit (PBU), to ideate, research, and refine novel venture hypotheses, validate key underlying unknowns of the biology or technology, and transition pressure-tested ideas into building a new company around the science.  You will help drive every facet of company origination including identification and recruitment of critical partners and advisors, establishment of foundational IP, hiring and leadership of the early scientific team, and establishment of working norms and culture. 

The central responsibilities for your role will include exploring and originating new venture creations and embedding within a new company to actively support its strategic and operational build.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

A successful candidate will become the expert on the foundational science of the company, frame and clearly communicate the strategy, translate that strategy into a plan, and lead operationalization of that plan alongside a Principal or Partner in the PBU.

• Contribute to and lead Flagship model explorations to rapidly assess interesting areas of science and develop novel, actionable and high value venture hypotheses
• Outline key scientific questions to enable venture hypotheses and develop experimental plans to rapidly create value and pressure test ideas
• Identify, build, and maintain relationships with appropriate academic KOLs and thought experts
• Support launch and development of new companies, contributing to the company strategic and operational plan, and driving execution
• Understand IP landscape, formulate initial strategy, and write seminal applications for the technology and company. Assess patentability of existing IP landscape, including of key competitors and of potentially licensable estate
• Contribute to audience-specific pitches for company
• Source, recruit and manage early-stage employees and relationships with CROs.
• Support operational tasks at the company, including establishing lab facilities, purchasing, HR, real estate acquisition, etc.
• Work closely with and leverage Flagship operations teams (Finance, IP, IT, HR, and Talent) for maximal operational excellence

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS 

The ideal candidate has a STEM-based PhD or MD from a top university and/or experience in life sciences biotech, start-up or entrepreneurial activities. The candidate must have a passion for novel science and be operationally savvy.

 

 Important skills and capabilities include:

• Ability to operate with high altitude preparedness and meticulousness
• Passion for scientific creativity and innovation, curiously seeking new information and techniques
• Excellent analytical skills and ability to define a clear and compelling value proposition of a given scientific opportunity and effectively and cogently communicate that to technical and non-technical audiences
• Energetic self-starter who strives for peak performance and faces obstacles with enthusiasm
• Values growth and development, and ascending as a team; demonstrates ability to give and receive feedback
• Unmatched sense of grit and agility

 

More about Flagship Pioneering:

Flagship Pioneering is a biotechnology company that invents and builds platform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $90 billion in aggregate value. Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity’s most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture.  Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies and has been twice named to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. Learn more about Flagship at www.flagshippioneering.com  

Location:  Cambridge, MA

More about Flagship Pioneering:

Flagship Pioneering is a biotechnology company that invents and builds platform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 1