Research Chemist
Convergent Research
Watertown, MA, USA
Posted on Sep 6, 2025
Parallel Squared Technology Institute (PTI) is a non-profit research institute aiming to catalyze a leap in protein analysis technology and use it to explore new biological frontiers. PTI supports open research and educational opportunities supporting rapid career development for scientists, engineers, and mathematicians.
Why? Protein dysfunctions directly cause many diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Yet, proteins remain understudied because of technological hurdles.
How? To resolve these limitations, PTI will develop mass tags enabling a new framework for multiplexed protein analysis by mass spectrometry towards achieving 100-fold increase in throughput. Scientists at and collaborating with the institute will use these gains to directly investigate disease mechanisms and resolve problems that have proven intractable for decades. Our proof of principle technology and strategies are outlined at: parallelsq.org.
New career opportunities
Members of PTI will be supported with industry-level resources to lead research projects and disseminate their discoveries and innovations to the broader biomedical community through frequent publications, presentations, and submissions to public data portals.
Summary of Position
We are looking for an individual contributor with previous experience in optimizing small molecule/peptide labeling chemistries. This person will lead the design of new labeling methods for mass tag development. This position will involve working with single cell ’omics pipelines, integrating optimizations for LC-MS systems and downstream analysis. The successful candidate will work in a highly interdisciplinary team environment with other scientists. In order to be seriously considered for this position, we require a cover letter as part of the candidate’s application.
Responsibilities:
- Discover and optimize new labeling chemistries for covalent modification of proteins and peptides
- Develop and optimize sample clean-up approaches
- Define new directions for technology development that can unlock new testable hypotheses
- Mentor scientists and research associates
- Prepare internal reports and manuscripts as well as present results at internal or external scientific meetings as appropriate
- Demonstrate a commitment to diversity, inclusion, and cultural awareness through actions, interactions, and communications with others
- Other duties as assigned
Qualifications:
- 5+ years of experience in medicinal chemistry in a professional setting OR PhD in Chemistry or Chemical Biology or related field
- Experience in optimizing organic chemistry reaction conditions
- Strong quantitative and analytical skills, with a proclivity for reasoning from first principles
- Highly motivated and organized researcher with strong analytical skills
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis of small molecules, peptides or proteins
- Experience in synthesizing small molecules for protein modification
- Strong foundation in diverse synthetic transformations and reaction strategies
We offer:
- An opportunity to change the world and work with some of the smartest and the most talented experts from different fields.
- Excellent medical, dental, and vision insurance with many $0 premium options for you and your family with several national and regional providers. Most employees have more than 20 plan options to choose from.
- Company-paid group life, AD&D, long- and short-term disability insurance
- 15 days PTO + 10 sick days per year
- 18 company holidays + your birthday off
- $5,000 per year educational reimbursement
- Up to 16 weeks paid parental leave
We aim to help fill a structural gap in today's R&D system. We enable fundamental research that requires unusual levels of scale and coordination yet is not rapidly monetizable by industry. We’re bringing together top talent from academia, industry, and startups to build a new model for innovative R&D. As an incubator within the Schmidt Futures Network, we identify high-impact scientific or technical research and development opportunities, ultimately defining and launching these projects as Focused Research Organizations.
We are an Equal Employment Opportunity employer that proudly pursues and hires a diverse workforce. We do not make hiring or employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion or religious belief, ethnic or national origin, nationality, sex, gender, gender-identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable local, state, or federal law or company policy. We strive for a healthy and safe workplace and strictly prohibit harassment of any kind.