Are you ready to own the planning, execution, and QC of high-quality single-cell and single-nucleus mosaic screens across diverse tissues and experimental conditions? Gordian’s pooled in vivo screening platform depends on generating excellent single-cell data at scale, and as we expand into new screen types, tissues, and partnerships, you’ll be responsible not just for running experiments—but for structuring, planning, de-risking, and maintaining cross-functional visibility for those experiments.

The Destination:

Gordian Biotechnology is a therapeutics company whose mission is to cure age-related disease and wake up every morning more capable than the day before.

Traditional ex vivo screening methods have failed to produce effective treatments, as age-related diseases have complex causes that include interactions with the aged environment.

To address this problem, Gordian’s platform is the first and only to enable pooled in vivo tests at scale, across different species of diseased animals reflecting patient profiles. We are able to deliver and test hundreds of therapeutics in individual animals, and scale efficacy testing to rapidly prioritize targets and interventions with a clear path toward development (more info on our website). 

We are running this discovery engine to ensure an abundance of therapeutic hypotheses can be tested for complex diseases, eventually mapping out the effects of every druggable target across many diseases, and advancing programs both internally and through collaborations with external partners. By working across related sets of indications, we can identify medicines with impacts on age-related multimorbidity.

The Journey:

Our mission is audacious, and the path will be full of both challenges and excitement. Two things characterize the Gordian experience: 1) We work as a team, with ownership in our own roles and trust in each other. 2) We strive for extraordinary outcomes, and in doing so grow our skills and capability.

Team – Relying on each other begins with transparency. We set clear goals, visibly connecting individuals and teams to our company objectives. This empowers each of us to make autonomous decisions about our work, knowing how they will affect the bigger picture. Our communication happens out in the open. We give and receive feedback from a perspective of helping each other grow, share mistakes, and ask for help.

Extraordinary – Every day, we ask ourselves ‘How could this process/outcome be even better?’. Knowing our overall mission, we do what we think helps us make the most progress, without asking for permission. We don’t shy away from big challenges or unknown territory, but find a way to excel. Our colleagues are amazing, both at what they do and as people. They inspire us to keep up, to not let them down, and be inspiring in return. 

Like any cutting-edge research environment, Gordian doesn't believe in a standard 9 to 5 day. We set ambitious project goals and support each other to meet them, while maintaining the balance individuals need to thrive and achieve excellence. Our team is geared towards helping each other out and maintaining a culture of intellectual and social fun. We like getting things done and keep standing meetings to a minimum. We have an unlimited vacation policy, not including major holidays. We unwind with weekly team lunches, and support each others’ projects both experimentally and by ‘pre-mortem’ meetings to discuss possible failure modes and experimental design. 

If this environment sounds appealing, help us bring it to life. We are at an exciting inflection point: applying our technology to create comprehensive atlases of therapeutic targets across multiple diseases, partnering for financial and intellectual support, and translating these insights into new medicines. We want both your ability and personality along for the ride. Our culture is a source of great pride; it represents both who we are and who we wish to be.

You can dive deeper here.

About the Role:

Your mission as a Single Cell Scientist is to run Gordian’s pooled in vivo screening platform at world-leading throughput, delivering consistently high-quality mosaic screen data across diverse tissues and experimental conditions and expanding the frontier on the size of in vivo single-cell datasets. Over the next 2+ years, you’ll support a high volume of complex discovery screens across internal and partner programs, including frequent expansion into new tissue types and novel technical challenges.

This Scientist-level role takes ownership of single-cell processing and quality from pre-execution planning through sequencing QC, ensuring accuracy, throughput, and clear communication, while working closely with Research Associates and Senior Scientists on the single-cell team to execute screens end-to-end. You will independently manage operational complexity, function effectively on a team of peers, and communicate clearly with project stakeholders.

In your first month at Gordian, you’ll fully onboard to the single-cell screening workflow (planning, processing, sorting logic, QC interpretation, and cross-functional interfaces), become fluent in Gordian’s SOPs and tools, demonstrate competency in existing tissue-processing protocols (cell and nuclei isolation), perform FACS/FANS sorting on BD AriaII/III instruments, and successfully perform 10x Genomics loading with appropriate QC checkpoints and troubleshooting.

By three months, you’ll independently manage execution of one nuclei-based screen in one disease program and own snRNA-seq screening decisions end-to-end for that program (sorting logic, QC control, troubleshooting transduction range/yield/cDNA quality). You’ll monitor preliminary results, incorporate learnings into updated planning tools, and initiate at least one process improvement project with a clear experimental plan and deployment criteria.

In six months, you’ll maintain and refine screen planning frameworks as new tissues, serotypes, barcoding strategies, and partnerships emerge; continue owning and executing snRNA-seq screens (optimization + troubleshooting); train junior team members to perform tissue processing and sorting alongside you; document improved SOPs/workflow guidelines; and ensure proactive, timely communication with stakeholders across teams.

And You:

• You have a history of successful execution and can independently manage operational complexity while keeping stakeholders aligned through clear, timely communication. 
• You want a chance to do your best work, immerse yourself and excel, alongside people who will inspire you and whom you’ll be excited to spend your days with. 
• You truly want to play a key role in an early-stage startup screening new targets for intractable diseases of aging: A fast-paced environment full of both uncertainty and new challenges, demanding relentless resourcefulness.
• You have expertise running flow cytometry to isolate specific cell types or nuclei. You’ve developed and optimized protocols for tissue dissociation and for cell/nuclei isolation, and are excited to apply this expertise at scale for major translational impact. 
• You’re a crisp communicator, and are able to seamlessly manage collaboration with cross-functional partners and teams.

Additional valuable skills if you have them:

• You bring strong experience with single-cell transcriptomic or other sequencing-based studies, with the ability to troubleshoot downstream library preparation issues (low cDNA yield, debris contamination, poor sample quality).
• You’re proficient in experimental design and the principles of data generation/analysis for single-cell genomic assay optimization, and you’re comfortable working in R/Python, Unix/Linux, and cloud computing environments for analysis of large omics datasets.

The Details:

Gordian aims to provide everything you need to thrive. Beyond our community and science, you’ll have enough equity to be a true stakeholder in the company, competitive salary, full health/dental/vision/life insurance, 401k with match, onsite lunch paid for 3 days a week, basic onsite gym, whatever vacation you need to be at your peak, and access to world-class mentors and advisors to support your professional growth. Our building is in the heart of the biotech capital of South San Francisco.