---
title: 'Founders Associate at Adaptyv'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/founders-associate-adaptyv-lausanne-dhevwfj6nmeq'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-05'
---

# Founders Associate at Adaptyv

- **Company:** Adaptyv
- **Location:** Lausanne, Switzerland
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-06-03
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-05
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/adaptyv/0fd9c492-3cb2-4cce-b495-3cab095a4fa6

## Job description

Adaptyv is building an automated lab that lets AI agents run biology experiments.

We're entering the era of agentic science where AI models can now design novel proteins, propose hypotheses, and iterate on experimental results. But they can't run the experiments themselves - that's still a manual, months-long process. We're building the infrastructure that gives AI agents access to the physical world.

We are one of the fastest growing biotech companies, trusted by leading biopharmas, frontier AI labs, and the techbio companies pushing the field forward. This is a rare chance to help advance some of the most important work happening in biotech today.

Our automated lab is powered by a deep software + hardware stack: lab instruments worth millions of USD reverse-engineered into API-controllable hardware, dozens of devices orchestrated through complex workflows, full observability on everything that happens in the lab, processing pipelines for messy physical-world data, and AI systems that troubleshoot production results and accelerate assay development.

We’re growing rapidly and are hiring for talented people to scale and support the massive demand for AI-driven wet lab experimentation.

## ABOUT THE ROLE

Adaptyv is growing fast. We are significantly expanding our lab this year, onboarding more and more customers every week, and building the systems needed to keep the company running smoothly as we scale.

We are looking for a Founders Associate to own and build the operational backbone of the company as we scale. This is a high-ownership generalist role: you'll take entire problems and run them end-to-end, from messy first draft to a process that runs cleanly without you.

You'll move between finance, customer operations, hiring, supplier relationships, and lab logistics — owning whatever is most important that week, not just supporting it. Most of what you'll work on is still manual, ad hoc, or held together by hand; your job is to turn it into systems and automations that scale, then move on to the next hardest thing.

This role requires exceptional agency and an entrepreneurial mindset. You should be comfortable being handed an ambiguous goal with no playbook and coming back with it solved.

## WHAT YOU'LL DO

- Own complete operational workstreams end-to-end — you're accountable for outcomes, not tasks
- Use AI tools to rebuild workflows that are still too manual, messy, or slow, and turn them into systems that run without you
- Own customer onboarding and help keep our growing customer base happy as we scale
- Run finance and administrative operations, working closely with our accountants and service providers
- Manage supplier and service-provider relationships, including negotiation and follow-through
- Drive lab expansion logistics for our new lab in Lausanne
- Own internal company coordination: events, customer visits, team operations, and the day-to-day rhythm of the company
- Build lightweight tools and automations using Claude Code, Python, Notion, no-code tools, or whatever gets the job done
- Design the processes and systems the company doesn't have yet — and make them happen

## WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

- A track record of getting things done: you've started something, run something, or owned something meaningful, whether at a startup, a side project, a club, or your studies. A background in biology is not a hard requirement. If you're coming from a different field, a genuine interest in the life sciences is important to us.
- Exceptional agency and ownership. You spot problems before anyone asks, take action, and don't stop until they're solved
- Entrepreneurial and self-directed — you're comfortable with ambiguity and no playbook, and you'd rather build the system than just run the task
- Strong with AI tools, especially Claude Code or Codex. You use them to build real workflows and tools, not just draft emails
- Hands-on, organized, and reliable. You follow through, keep things tidy, and don't let things fall through the cracks
- You thrive in a dynamic role where priorities change quickly, and you're comfortable jumping between projects, responsibilities, and urgent operational needs

## DETAILS

- Location: Lausanne, Switzerland (on-site)
- Type: Full time
- Start Date: ASAP

Application deadline

We are reviewing applicants on a rolling basis.

## About Adaptyv

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Adaptyv is a cloud lab that enables protein designers to validate and test novel protein designs using fully automated labs, delivering clean, AI-ready experimental data in under three weeks.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage — raised $10.9M total; last round: $8.0M Seed led by ACE Ventures in October 2025)
- **Headquarters**: Lausanne, Switzerland
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Daniel Nakhaee-Zadeh Gutierrez (Co-Founder) and Julian Englert (Co-Founder & CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Biotechnology research / Protein engineering / Synthetic biology lab services
- **Target customers**: B2B — AI-first protein engineering teams, computational biologists, biotech/pharma R&D groups (both startups and established enterprises)
- **Mission statement**: “To make proteins easier to engineer” by building technologies that allow protein engineers to design and test new proteins for medicines, industrial enzymes, and functional materials [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/).

## Products & Services
- **Adaptyv Cloud Lab** (Primary offering): A fully automated protein validation lab. Clients submit protein sequences digitally; Adaptyv performs synthesis, expression, purification, and a wide range of assays, returning raw and labelled data in under 3 weeks. Priced at **$149 per protein** (includes 2 replicates). Data is accessible via a modern experiment management platform, eliminating email-based quoting and Excel sheets [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/).
- **Adaptyv API**: Programmatic access to the lab, allowing seamless integration into users’ design–build–test workflows. Supports high-throughput and automated submission [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/).
- **Experiment Management Platform**: Web-based dashboard to order assays, monitor progress, analyze results, and track historical performance of protein design rounds [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metrics**:
  - **Revenue**: $1.0M (estimated annual revenue per LinkedIn) [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)
  - **Total Funding**: $10,939,391 across four rounds (Pre-Seed via Y Combinator, Pre-Seed led by Founderful, Debt from Foundation for Innovation and Technology, and Seed from ACE Ventures) [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)
- **Notable Investors**: Y Combinator (Summer 2021 batch), Founderful, ACE Ventures (lead Seed round), Foundation for Innovation and Technology (FIT) [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Team size grew from ~25 (Y Combinator profile, 2025) to 31 employees (LinkedIn, 2026) — a **65% year-over-year increase** [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/adaptyv) [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)
  - 30 open positions listed on careers page (April 2026) [adaptyvbio.com/careers](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/careers)
  - Operates in 7 countries, with the majority of the team in Switzerland [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Speed**: Fastest protein validation lab — “go from sequence design to experimental data in under 3 weeks” [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/)
- **Data quality**: Automated, standardized lab processes produce consistent, labelled data that is directly useful for training generative AI models (billed as “lab-in-the-loop protein design”)
- **Transparent per‑protein pricing**: No hidden costs, no RFQ cycles — $149/protein simplifies budgeting for teams of all sizes
- **Purpose‑built for AI‑first workflows**: Seamless API and platform integration enables iterative design cycles, reducing time between computational predictions and wet-lab validation [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/)

## Strategic Focus
- **Current priorities**: Scaling lab automation capacity to handle increasing demand; expanding the range of assays offered (biophysical, functional, cell-based); deepening integrations with AI protein design tools; growing the team across biology, software, and operations.
- **Direction**: To become the de facto “cloud lab” layer for the protein design stack, powering the world’s best AI-driven protein engineering teams [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/) [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)

## Why Work Here
- **Culture & Values**: Emphasizes first‑principles thinking, data‑driven decision‑making, an action‑oriented mindset, and strong work ethic. The team is composed of talented engineers from molecular biology, lab automation, software engineering, and machine learning [adaptyvbio.com/careers](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/careers)
- **Location & Flexibility**: Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Most roles offer **hybrid** or **remote** arrangements (within Switzerland/Europe), with some roles listed as Lausanne/Hybrid/Remote [adaptyvbio.com/careers](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/careers)
- **Perks & Environment**: A chance to shape the infrastructure of protein engineering — building revolutionary technologies in synthetic biology and lab automation. The team has strong academic and startup roots (EPFL, Harvard, YC). Open roles include Software Engineers, AI/ML Engineers, Lab Automation Engineers, Scientists (Protein Expression, Antibody Developability, Cell-Based Assays), and Operations roles.
- **Open Positions**: 30 roles across software, biology, lab automation, and business development as of April 2026 [adaptyvbio.com/careers](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/careers)

## Sources
1. [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/)
2. [adaptyvbio.com/careers](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/careers)
3. [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/adaptyv)
4. [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)
5. [adaptyvbio.com/team](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/team)

## Other roles at Adaptyv

- [Software Engineer, Backend](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-backend-adaptyv-lausanne-mtk5femhycxx) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Software Engineer, Backend](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-backend-adaptyv-london-43vyjh11paxt) — London, United Kingdom
- [Software Engineer, Product](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-product-adaptyv-london-s74tk2dg2j9s) — London, United Kingdom
- [UK Ops & Programme Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/uk-ops-programme-manager-adaptyv-london-8ejrm21xdghj) — London, United Kingdom
- [Head of UK Lab Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-uk-lab-operations-adaptyv-london-c70pcyjekwj0) — London, United Kingdom
- [Head of UK Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-uk-operations-adaptyv-london-ftc0d64e93zn) — London, United Kingdom
- [Bioengineer, Display & Library Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/bioengineer-display-library-engineering-adaptyv-lausanne-k7jakz1431rg) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Lab Operations Associate](https://feeny.ai/job/lab-operations-associate-adaptyv-lausanne-mf8jmyqyrrbc) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Supply Chain & Procurement Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/supply-chain-procurement-manager-adaptyv-lausanne-m9qc76bzmb6p) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Head of Finance](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-finance-adaptyv-lausanne-598nmngvesv8) — Lausanne, Switzerland