--- title: 'IT/OT Specialist at Parallel Bio' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/it-ot-specialist-parallel-bio-san-francisco-aebd10bsyxff' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-18' --- # IT/OT Specialist at Parallel Bio - **Company:** Parallel Bio - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-09-25 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/parallel-bio/09c0fc97-0f41-49ab-9f70-c2b130e7da9b ## Job description The Mission Drug discovery has a translation problem: more than 95% of drugs that succeed in animal models fail in humans. We're building the alternative: human-first drug discovery, powered by organoids and AI, running on real human biology from the very first experiment. Our platform is 87% concordant with clinical patient data - a vast improvement over the 3% translational success rate of animals. We’ve demonstrated the ability to model immunotoxicology, immunogen stimulation, and two autoimmune diseases with more on the way. Numerous pharma partners including 3 Fortune 500 companies are already using the platform. We've raised ~$30M from AIX Ventures, Marc Benioff, Jeff Dean, and Y Combinator. With the FDA Modernization Act 3.0 and the FDA's March 2026 validation framework, the regulatory tailwinds only continue to get stronger. The opportunity ahead of the company is generational: build the first scaled engine for generating real human biological data, and use it to fundamentally change how medicines are discovered. ## The Role We are looking for an IT/OT Specialist to build and maintain the systems that keep our lab and corporate technology running reliably, securely, and connected. The role spans information technology and operational technology in roughly equal measure. On the IT side, that is network, endpoint, identity and infrastructure. On the OT side, it is the instruments and automation equipment that generate our data, the networks those devices sit on, and the path their data takes into our platform. You are the person who makes sure a scientist's laptop, the lab's instrument network, and the data pipeline between them all just work. You will work alongside our cloud and infrastructure function, handling on-the-ground IT/OT execution while coordinating on cloud architecture decisions and how lab systems connect into our broader data platform. Two things to know before applying: - This is a full-time on-site role at our labs in San Francisco and Brisbane, CA. Because this position involves hands-on work with lab instrumentation, network hardware, and physical infrastructure, we need this person on-site, not remote or hybrid. - The role carries on-call responsibility for critical IT/OT issues, including lab-impacting outages outside normal business hours. ## What You'll Own OT - Support the network and connectivity needs of lab instrumentation and automation equipment (integrating devices onto secure, segmented networks) - Partner with the Platform/Automation team, and with our Cloud Architect, to troubleshoot connectivity and data-flow issues between instruments, automation systems, and the cloud data platform - Maintain an inventory of connected lab devices, their configurations, and their support/service status - Help define and implement basic OT security practices (network segmentation, access control for instrument systems) in coordination with IT security - Support integration of new instrumentation as the platform scales, working alongside automation engineers and platform leadership - Own and maintain the equipment register: tracking owner, location, readiness, and service/calibration status for connected lab devices, and keep it current as new equipment comes online - Follow lab safety and access protocols (including badge access and any PPE requirements) when working in or near BSL-2+ lab areas; you won't own EHS, but you'll need to operate safely within it IT - Support day-to-day IT operations: user accounts, identity and access management, endpoint provisioning, and helpdesk support across our sites - Support maintenance of core infrastructure: networking, servers, cloud accounts, backups, and security tooling, in close coordination with our Cloud Architect on architecture and cloud-side decisions - Support implementation and enforcement IT security practices (access controls, patching, monitoring) appropriate for a company handling sensitive biological and customer data, working with Legal/Compliance to meet our infosec and data privacy requirements as they're established - Support onboarding/offboarding for a growing, multi-site team - Support evaluation, deployment, and maintenance of software tools used across the company (collaboration tools, LIMS-adjacent systems, etc.) - Maintain documentation for IT systems, configurations, and processes - Provide on-call support for critical IT/OT issues, including lab-impacting outages outside normal business hours ## Qualifications - Experience: 3 to 6 years in IT infrastructure, systems administration or a related role, including OT experience with industrial or lab device networking, or hardware integration. - Technical Fundamentals: Solid grounding in networking, identity and access management, and endpoint management. - Builder's Instinct: You have worked somewhere the processes were still being built rather than followed, and you are comfortable operating that way. - Troubleshooting: You are at your best when something breaks, and you are comfortable being the person people come to. - Clear Communication: You can hold a technical conversation about system design and explain the same issue to a scientist who does not need the detail. - On-Site Commitment: You are willing and able to work on-site consistently and to be physically present for hands-on troubleshooting. - Nice to have: Experience in a life sciences, biotech or lab environment, and familiarity with LIMS, instrument data systems or lab networks. Parallel Bio is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful workplace. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, or sexual orientation. ## About Parallel Bio ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Parallel Bio is a biotechnology company using a proprietary human immune organoid platform and AI to reimagine drug discovery, aiming to replace animal testing and predict human clinical outcomes from the start. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series A) - **Headquarters**: Watertown, Massachusetts, United States - **Founded**: 2021 - **Founders**: Robert DiFazio (Co-Founder & Co-CEO), Juliana Hilliard (Co-Founder & Co-CEO) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Biotechnology, Drug Discovery - **Target customers**: B2B; Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies seeking preclinical drug validation and discovery services. - **Mission or purpose**: To reimagine the entire drug discovery process from the ground up, creating a system that charts the map of human biology to go from disease target discovery to IND in a fraction of the time and cost, making drug development 10x faster and 1000x cheaper while eliminating animal testing. ## Products & Services - **Human Immune Organoid Platform**: The world’s first scalable human immune organoid designed to capture the human biology that animal models miss. It is a closed-loop, end-to-end automation system that generates compounding proprietary data on how therapies perform across diverse patient populations. - **Biological Atlas / Map of Human Biology**: A population-scale, perturbable, and fully human biological atlas built on data from a biobank of over 170 donors spanning different ages, sexes, ethnicities, and disease states. This platform enables disease target discovery, precision medicine, and patient stratification. - **Drug Discovery Services**: Partnering with pharmaceutical companies (including three Fortune 500 companies) to test compounds and predict clinical trial outcomes earlier and more reliably than existing preclinical models. Over 170 compounds have been tested to date. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available. - **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$25.75M** across 4 rounds. - **Recent Funding**: **$21.0M Series A** (July 2025) led by AIX Ventures with 8 investors. - **Revenue**: Estimated annual revenue of **$3.2M** (LinkedIn estimate). - **Notable Investors/Partners**: AIX Ventures (Lead, Series A), Refactor (Lead, Seed Round). Advisors include Darrell Irvine (Professor, Scripps Research), Shane Crotty (Professor & CSO, La Jolla Institute), and Nima Aghaeepour (Professor, Stanford). - **Growth Signals**: 17.4% headcount growth YoY; presence in Austria alongside US HQ; LinkedIn follower growth of 129.2% yearly; active hiring across science, technology, and operations departments. ## Competitive Advantages - **Human-first biology**: A platform built entirely on human data, not animal models, which captures population diversity that clinical trials often fail to achieve. - **Proprietary data flywheel**: The closed-loop automation system generates a massive, proprietary dataset of human biological data, creating a compounding advantage for AI model training and discovery. - **Speed and cost**: Claims 10x faster and 1000x cheaper drug discovery compared to traditional methods, with a focus on reducing the 97.3% failure rate of clinical trials. - **Zero animal testing**: A strong ethical and scientific differentiator, appealing to modern regulatory and societal standards. ## Strategic Focus - **Platform scaling**: Expanding the biobank and automation capabilities to generate more data and improve the biological atlas. - **Commercial partnerships**: Deepening collaborations with large pharmaceutical companies (including three Fortune 500) to validate and scale the platform. - **Precision medicine**: Using the map of human biology to unlock personalized insights and patient stratification. - **AI and data**: Building foundation models on the growing dataset to further accelerate drug discovery and prediction. ## Why Work Here - **Mission-driven work**: Directly tackling the $2.6 billion, 12.5-year problem of drug discovery and aiming to eliminate animal testing, offering a chance to have a massive impact on human health. - **Interdisciplinary team**: Brings together experts in immunotherapy, data science, bioengineering, and drug discovery, fostering a collaborative environment. - **Culture**: Described as "a diverse, interdisciplinary team of dreamers and doers" looking for "fellow visionaries hungry for real impact." - **Work policy**: Most roles are **on-site in San Francisco, CA** (6 of 7 open positions), with one remote role available. The HQ is in Watertown, MA. - **Growth trajectory**: With recent Series A funding, rapid follower growth, and active hiring across multiple departments (Science, Technology, Operations), the company is in an aggressive growth phase. - **Open roles (7 total)**: Head of Platform, Head of Biology, Head of Sales, Data Application Engineer, Research Associate (Biobanking), Scientist (HIV Virology), and a general talent network application. ## Sources 1. [parallel.bio](https://www.parallel.bio/) 2. [parallel.bio/about](https://www.parallel.bio/about) 3. [parallel.bio/careers](https://www.parallel.bio/careers) 4. [LinkedIn - Parallel Bio](https://www.linkedin.com/company/parallelbio) 5. 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