PopVax is an Indian full-stack biotech building first-in-class and best-in-class vaccines and cancer immunotherapies using machine learning-driven design and relentless empiricism. We design, develop, and manufacture our own RNA medicines end-to-end because we believe great pharmaceutical science can only flourish in tight feedback loops that iterate rapidly. PopVax’s experimental work and clinical dose production is based at the RNA Foundry, our integrated R&D and GMP-capable clinical dose production facility in Hyderabad.

PopVax's north star is our goal of developing novel vaccines and therapeutics over the next decade with the cumulative ability to save 1 million lives each year – the Million Lives Mission. To that end, we are developing first-in-class vaccines against Hepatitis C Virus, Strep A, and adult pulmonary TB, broadly-protective best-in-class vaccines against COVID-19, influenza, and HPV, and precision immunotherapies against hard-to-treat solid tumours such as liver cancer and pancreatic cancer.

Our work is funded by Vitalik Buterin’s Balvi Fund, the Gates Foundation, the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and Renaissance Philanthropy. Our first vaccine program will begin a Phase I clinical trial in the US in mid-2026 conducted & sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). We intend to put 6 novel vaccines and immunotherapies into Phase I clinical trials over the next 3 years.

No matter the job title, each person’s role at PopVax is ultimately focused on helping take safe & effective new medicines that represent a step-change improvement on the current standard-of-care to the people who need them as fast as possible. If you want to work where the ambition is high, the learning curve is steep, and the work matters to billions, you’ll feel at home here.

If you’re excited by the idea of advancing scientific, clinical, and regulatory frontiers of vaccines and immunotherapies, spending each day developing medicines with the potential to save millions of lives, and building a generational global pharmaceutical company in India along the way – join us!

We work extensively on the discovery and development of novel lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations and other mechanisms for nucleic acid delivery, with a focus on new delivery modalities and the improvement of the long-term thermostability of mRNA formulations to make them compatible with the realities of developing world pharmaceutical supply chains. We are recruiting both junior and senior candidates to contribute to this work, in particular with a background in the life sciences, chemistry, microfluidics, or interdisciplinary engineering, with prior experience in some subset of formulation discovery (including the synthesis and evaluation of LNPs, liposomes, or polymeric delivery vehicles), microfluidics, particle size analysis (via DLS or other methods), and nucleic acid quantification.

QUALIFICATIONS 

• MSc or PhD in a life sciences or related discipline (for example, chemistry, biophysics, or a relevant branch of engineering) with at least one substantial project demonstrating prior experience in nucleic acid (RNA or DNA) delivery or an adjacent delivery modality in either academia or industry.

• An ability to read and understand diverse literature across the many disciplines relevant to nucleic acid delivery to distill the best new ideas in the field and apply them to our work.

• A track record of coming up with and successfully executing new ideas in nucleic acid delivery and formulation, or a related field.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. The ability to present scientific findings clearly and concisely is a vital and non-negotiable component of success at PopVax.

• A collaborative mindset and the ability to work effectively within a team environment.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, with a demonstrated track record of independently interpreting experimental data and troubleshooting technical challenges.

• A willingness to shoulder substantial and often repetitive formulation and characterisation workloads on a daily basis when needed.

• A desire to rapidly learn, troubleshoot, and master new experimental techniques.

AREAS OF RELEVANT EXPERIENCE

Note that you don’t need experience in all of this, just a subset, but the more experience you have across these areas, the better.

• Lipid or polymer-based drug delivery and formulation, preferably for nucleic acids, and ideally for mRNA in particular.

• Microfluidics, preferably for lipid or polymeric nanoparticle synthesis, encapsulation, and characterisation.

• Formulation or nanoparticle characterisation, including particle size and zeta potential measurements, pKa determination, and viscosity.

• Nucleic acid quantification techniques such as RiboGreen-style assays and NanoDrop-style spectrophotometry.

• Gel electrophoresis for nucleic acid and protein characterisation (including by Western blot).

• Formulation or nanoparticle downstream purification methods such as ultrafiltration and TFF.

• Cell-culture of immortalised cell lines, as well as transfection of nucleic acids and nucleic acid formulations.

• Cell-based assays such as reporter assays (Luciferase, GFP) and ELISA.

• The setup and operation of high-throughput in vitro screening protocols for delivery formulations.

• Formulation or assay automation, including lab automation equipment setup and programming.

• Animal studies of drug or vaccine delivery formulations, ideally nucleic acid delivery.

We offer very competitive compensation, comprehensive health insurance with an option to cover immediate family (including pre-existing conditions), and, most importantly, a collaborative work environment focused on solving the cutting-edge multidisciplinary challenges of our novel mRNA delivery platforms.