Molecular Biologist / Research Scientist at Proto-Town (Lockhart)
Proto-Town· Lockhart·
Role details
Work type
Onsite
Employment
Full-Time
Job description
The role
We are building an automated biology platform and, and we are looking for a molecular biologist / research scientist to handle the core wet lab work: selection design, library construction, and readouts.
Responsibilities
- Run end to end workflows, library through selection to characterized hits
- Design selection strategy: stringency schedules, bottlenecks, counter-selections
- Design FACS sorting and screening strategies, and interpret population trajectories across rounds
Must-haves
- Cell culture: hands-on experience, ideally with yeast.
- Molecular cloning: fundamentals (PCR amplification, Gibson assembly, Golden Gate assembly, transformations); experience with sequencing services.
- Flow cytometry/FACS: gating strategies, staining, sample loading.
Nice-to-haves Yeast genetics and surface display · OrthoRep or other continuous hypermutation systems · phage display or PACE · SPR/BLI · NGS library prep and analysis · protein expression and purification · Opentrons, Hamilton, Tecan, or eVOLVER-class hardware. If you have never worked in yeast, apply anyway. We would rather hire for selection judgment and long-run discipline, and teach the organism.
Why work at Proto-Town
- Culture: Described as a “resurrected spirit of experimentation” with a “frontier” mentality. The environment is deeply hands-on, hardware-first, and driven by builders rather than software optimizers. One employee described it as “not just LinkedIn and fake buttons that you’re clicking.”
- Work environment: On-site living is common (retrofitted shipping containers, old school buses, inflatable office buildings). The remoteness fosters deep focus and rapid iteration. Safety gets high attention (security checkpoint, emergency protocols).
- Remote/hybrid policy: Not explicitly stated, but the nature of the work (physical hardware, on-site testing, nuclear reactors) heavily implies on-site, hands-on presence is required. Likely not remote-friendly.
- Notable perks: Access to cutting-edge hardware infrastructure, proximity to elite founders and investors, ability to influence the physical build-out of an entire new town from scratch, and the chance to be part of a project that has been compared to the Manhattan Project in its speed and ambition.
- Engineering culture: Direct, gritty, and high-autonomy. You’ll likely be working on real physical systems—robots, reactors, drones, energy storage—rather than web dashboards. The talent pool includes ex-Waymo, Neuralink, and Tesla engineers.