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 novel LNP formulations and other mechanisms for nucleic acid delivery, including the design and synthesis of novel charged lipids, and are hiring aggressively in this area. 

We are looking for a senior synthetic chemist with deep expertise in the design and synthesis of novel lipids, in particular cationic and ionisable lipids for nucleic acid delivery, to join our team. While, all things being equal, we prefer candidates who are willing to work in person at one of our wet labs in Hyderabad, we are willing to consider exceptionally-qualified candidates from anywhere in the world who wish to work remotely.

Viable candidates will have demonstrated competence in de novo lipid design for nucleic acid delivery applications. We expect the individual we hire to be able to independently generate a number of viable lipid designs for use in mRNA-LNP formulations targeting various desirable properties, including:

1. increased mRNA expression in vivo

2. increased thermostability

3. reduced reactogenicity and toxicity

4. targeted delivery to relevant tissues and cell types

The ideal candidate will also have experience working on high throughput in vitro screening of novel lipids and LNP formulations, along with strong experience with and understanding of how changes to lipid design manifest in vivo.

We offer very competitive compensation, comprehensive health insurance covering immediate family (including pre-existing conditions) [note: for Remote candidates, health insurance may vary based on country of residence], and, most importantly, a collaborative work environment focused on solving the cutting-edge multidisciplinary challenges of our novel mRNA platform.