Octant Apprentice

About the Role

Octant is looking for the class of 2027-2028 Apprentices! You're close to graduation and excited to train in Octant's core technologies before your next professional step. Whether you're excited about startups, working in industry, or planning on going to graduate school, you're motivated by Octant's mission to engineer breakthrough medicines. As part of the Octant team, you'll learn from some of the top scientists in drug discovery, synthetic biology, HT ADMET, and chemistry to directly contribute to our therapeutic programs and platform. You love working in the lab, are organized, love learning, and take pride in all of your work. You thrive on getting things done, are eager to troubleshoot random tasks that arise in startups, and can navigate the uncertainty of an ever-changing and fast-paced environment.

Most of the OAs use the program as a gap year before entering graduate school, medical school, or continuing in industry. However, many OAs continue on at Octant at the conclusion of the program.

As an Octant Apprentice (OA) at Octant, you will:

• Work closely with a scientist mentor to support and expand Octant's platform technologies to develop novel therapeutics. This includes synthetic biology, multiplexed assays, chemistry, HT ADMET and drug discovery.
• Learn technical skills relevant to your Octant work such as mammalian cell engineering, cutting edge molecular cloning techniques, high-throughput chemical synthesis, automation, cell-based assays, assay development, cutting edge HT mass spectrometry methods, and more.
• Experience the multiple facets of a startup, including recruiting and discussing scientific and commercial strategy.
• Expand your network with other startups, academic programs, and investors during network events and monthly fireside chats.
• Have regular brunches with our founders, Sri Kosuri and Ramsey Homsany.

This job might be great for you if you have:

• Education background: You are about to graduate with a bachelor's degree in biology, chemistry, biological engineering, chemical engineering, computation biology/chemistry or related field by August 2027.
• Experience: Participated in undergraduate research experience involving biology, biochemistry, engineering, chemistry, or other STEM fields.
• A Detail-Oriented Approach: Attention to detail in experimental design, data collection, and analysis.
• Flexibility & Adaptability: Flexibility to rapidly changing priorities and project needs, with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
• A Drive to Innovate and Build: As a startup, there are many ways to contribute to Octant's success. As an Octant Apprentice, you'll have the opportunity to contribute to high impact projects to build the company.

As part of the application process, please indicate whether you are interested in the biology or chemistry roles. Candidates will be evaluated for a role focused on their technical area selection(s). Please note, cross-functional students are invited to apply to up to 2 roles.