---
title: 'Principal Scientist, Target Discovery & Portfolio Strategy at Xaira Therapeutics'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-scientist-target-discovery-portfolio-strategy-xaira-therapeutics-e1120npv099c'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-19'
---

# Principal Scientist, Target Discovery & Portfolio Strategy at Xaira Therapeutics

- **Company:** Xaira Therapeutics
- **Location:** South San Francisco, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-10-13
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-19
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/xairatherapeutics/jobs/5261510007

## Job description

## About Xaira Therapeutics

Xaira is an innovative biotech startup focused on leveraging AI to transform drug discovery and development. The company is leading the development of generative AI models to design protein and antibody therapeutics, enabling the creation of medicines against historically hard-to-drug molecular targets. It is also developing foundation models for biology and disease to enable better target elucidation and patient stratification. Collectively, these technologies aim to continually enable the identification of novel therapies and to improve success in drug development. Xaira is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and London.

## About the Role

We are looking for a Principal Scientist with a strong background in immunology to identify new therapeutic opportunities and help shape Xaira’s portfolio.

You will integrate internal datasets, human genetics, and published research to prioritize opportunities that address patient needs and build on Xaira’s target discovery and antibody design platforms. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys connecting scientific findings and translating them into strategic decisions.

In this role, you will:

- Identify promising disease areas. Assess unmet needs, disease mechanisms, patient subsets, and the limitations of current treatments.
- Find and prioritize targets. Combine human genetics, functional genomics, genome-scale multi-omics datasets, and patient data to develop strong therapeutic hypotheses.
- Assess platform fit. Work with molecular design, protein engineering, and functional screening teams to identify opportunities where our platforms could offer a therapeutic advantage.
- Evaluate the evidence. Assess causality, the desired direction of target modulation, safety risks, and key knowledge gaps.
- Build clear recommendations. Develop concise target assessments covering disease rationale, patient selection, competition, differentiation, and risks.
- Track emerging science and competition. Follow publications and clinical results, and monitor the competitive landscape to identify new opportunities and inform priorities.
- Use AI tools to analyze multi-modal data.
- Lead discovery programs or platform initiatives.

We are looking for someone with:

- PhD in immunology or a related field with 6+ years of industry experience in drug discovery, target discovery, preclinical drug development, or translational drug development.
- Experience drawing on human genetics, genome-scale multi-omics datasets, and other human data alongside cell biology, disease biology, and clinical findings to evaluate therapeutic hypotheses.
- Strong scientific judgment and the ability to distinguish an interesting association from a credible therapeutic opportunity.
- Clear communication skills and the ability to guide decisions across disciplines.
- Curiosity, independence, and a willingness to challenge assumptions and revise recommendations as the evidence evolves.

## Compensation

We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package, seeking to provide an open, flexible, and friendly work environment to empower employees and provide them with a platform to develop their long-term careers. A Summary of Benefits is available for all applicants. We offer a competitive package that includes base salary, bonus, and equity. The base pay range for this position is expected to be $164,000-$205,000 annually; however, the base pay offered may vary depending on the market, job-related knowledge, skills and capabilities, and experience.

Xaira Therapeutics an equal-opportunity employer. We believe that our strength is in our differences. Our goal to build a diverse and inclusive team began on day one, and it will never end.

TO ALL RECRUITMENT AGENCIES: Xaira Therapeutics does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias or employees. Xaira Therapeutics is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

## About Xaira Therapeutics

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Xaira Therapeutics is an integrated biotechnology company applying artificial intelligence across the entire drug discovery and development process to design next-generation medicines.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: South San Francisco, California, United States (with offices in Seattle, Washington, and London, UK)
- **Founded**: 2023
- **Founders**: Co-founded and incubated by ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Labs, with foundational scientific contributions from Nobel Laureate Dr. David Baker (Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington).

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Biotechnology, Drug Discovery & Development, Artificial Intelligence
- **Target customers**: B2B (pharmaceutical partners, biotech collaborators) and ultimately patients via its own therapeutic pipeline.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Pioneering the transformative artificial intelligence that will help discover and develop the next generation of life-changing medicines." [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/)

## Products & Services
- **AI-Powered Drug Discovery Platform**: An end-to-end platform integrating advanced AI research, expansive data generation (functional genomics, proteomics, multi-omics), and robust therapeutic product development to shift drug discovery from an empirical science to a precise engineering discipline. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-approach)
- **Computational Protein Design**: Built on foundational work by Nobel Laureate Dr. David Baker, leveraging AI to design entirely new proteins from scratch for previously undruggable targets. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-approach)
- **X-Cell (Virtual Cell Model)**: An AI model trained on billions of genomic data points to simulate and understand cellular biology. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/)
- **Therapeutic Pipeline**: A pipeline of differentiated therapeutics across multiple modalities (small molecules, biologics, protein therapeutics) developed through an integrated AI-driven process.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed. The company launched in 2023 with a $1 billion Series A financing, one of the largest in biotech history.
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of $1 billion (Series A, 2023).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: ARCH Venture Partners (co-founder and lead investor), Foresite Labs (co-founder and incubator), F-Prime Capital, and other top-tier investors. Board includes leaders from ARCH, Foresite, NEA, and Johnson & Johnson. Scientific advisors include Nobel Laureates Carolyn R. Bertozzi and David Baker, and other luminaries. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-team)
- **Growth Signals**: Launched in 2023 with a record $1B Series A; rapidly building a world-class team across three global hubs (South San Francisco, Seattle, London); actively hiring across AI, computational biology, protein design, and drug development roles; announced X-Cell, a virtual cell model trained on billions of genomic data points. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Unprecedented Capital & Talent**: Launched with a $1B Series A, enabling aggressive hiring of top-tier AI and biology talent and long-term investment in infrastructure.
- **End-to-End AI Integration**: Uniquely positioned to apply AI across the entire drug discovery and development lifecycle, from target identification to clinical development, creating a powerful data flywheel.
- **World-Class Scientific Foundation**: Built on foundational AI protein design work from Nobel Laureate David Baker's lab, with a board and advisory board including multiple Nobel Laureates, former FDA commissioners, and industry leaders from Genentech, Johnson & Johnson, and top venture firms. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-team)
- **Massive Data Generation**: Investing heavily in functional genomics and proteomics to generate proprietary, multi-dimensional datasets that fuel AI model development, creating a defensible data moat.

## Strategic Focus
- **End-to-End AI Integration**: Building predictive and agentic AI models across the complete drug discovery and development spectrum to increase probability of success, reduce timelines, and lower costs. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-approach)
- **Data as a Core Asset**: Generating and integrating massive, multi-dimensional biological datasets (from molecular to human scales) to train and improve AI models continuously.
- **Pipeline Development**: Advancing a pipeline of differentiated therapeutics across multiple modalities (small molecules, biologics, protein therapeutics).
- **Talent Acquisition**: Aggressively hiring across AI research, engineering, computational biology, protein design, and drug development to build a world-class, interdisciplinary team.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven**: Opportunity to work at the forefront of AI and biology to fundamentally transform how medicines are discovered and developed, with the potential to impact millions of patients.
- **World-Class Team & Mentorship**: Work alongside and learn from Nobel Laureates, top AI researchers, and experienced drug developers from leading pharma and biotech companies. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-team)
- **Interdisciplinary Culture**: A unique blend of AI/ML engineers, protein designers, computational biologists, and drug hunters all working together in a highly collaborative environment.
- **Global Hubs & Flexibility**: Offices in South San Francisco, Seattle, and London, offering multiple locations for talent.
- **Generous Resources**: Backed by a $1B Series A, providing the resources to pursue ambitious, long-term research without short-term funding pressure.
- **Job Scam Awareness**: The company has issued a warning about fraudulent job offers; all legitimate recruitment is conducted through official channels (Greenhouse) and never via Google Chat or requests for payment. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/work-with-us)

## Sources
1. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/)
2. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-approach)
3. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/our-team)
4. [xaira.com](https://www.xaira.com/work-with-us)
5. [greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/xairatherapeutics)

## Other roles at Xaira Therapeutics

- [Senior Scientist, Antibody Characterization](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-scientist-antibody-characterization-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-28jxkpddcby2) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Project Manager, Biologics R&D - Early Pipeline Programs](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-project-manager-biologics-r-d-early-pipeline-programs-xaira-therapeutics-36myc85pkttj) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Vice President, Clinical Development, Oncology](https://feeny.ai/job/vice-president-clinical-development-oncology-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-nwq8tfzcf3d0) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Senior Director, Clinical Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-director-clinical-operations-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-francisco-nrx5ytj3me96) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Principal Scientist, Protein Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-scientist-protein-engineering-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-francisco-2dwzf5jmc3sv) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Procurement Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/procurement-manager-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-francisco-368fe4j3aymx) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Research Associate / Senior Research Associate, Genomic Core](https://feeny.ai/job/research-associate-senior-research-associate-genomic-core-xaira-therapeutics-ds5ts7k1r4px) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Scientist II, High Throughput Biology](https://feeny.ai/job/scientist-ii-high-throughput-biology-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-francisco-dp58zy18q1wd) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Principal Scientist, Biology](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-scientist-biology-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-francisco-2azp7k7sb0b2) — South San Francisco, CA
- [Lab Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lab-software-engineer-xaira-therapeutics-south-san-francisco-mt9p82bbxdfp) — South San Francisco, CA