The posting
About Parabilis Medicines
Parabilis Medicines is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to creating extraordinary medicines for patients with serious diseases by unlocking biologically important targets long considered undruggable. The company has pioneered a new class of alpha-helical peptides – Helicons™ – capable of modulating intracellular proteins that have historically been beyond the reach of conventional medicines. The company’s lead investigational medicine, zolucatetide, is the first and only direct inhibitor of the β-catenin:TCF interaction, a central node in the Wnt/β-catenin pathway that has eluded drug developers for decades. Zolucatetide is being evaluated in the clinic across multiple Wnt/β-catenin-driven diseases, including desmoid tumors, familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and a range of other solid tumor indications. Beyond zolucatetide, Parabilis is advancing additional Helicon-based programs focused on other challenging targets where we believe our medicines could have life-altering impact. For more information, visit www.parabilismed.com or follow us on LinkedIn.
What’s the opportunity?
Parabilis Medicines is seeking an experienced, hands-on Associate Director, Structural Biology to lead structural biology activities supporting our discovery programs. Reporting to the Senior Director and Head of Computational Drug Discovery, you will partner closely with them to shape the future of structural biology at Parabilis, working with program teams to obtain, interpret, and operationalize structural information on Helicon™-mediated complexes.
Structural insight sits on the critical path for our degrader and protein–protein interaction programs, and Helicon-mediated ternary complexes are large, flexible, transient, and frequently refractory to any single technique. As the senior structural biologist, you will bring scientific leadership and practical judgment to these questions: managing and developing a small team, coordinating work with contract scientists and external CRO partners, and applying complementary structural approaches in parallel to deliver structures on program timelines.
This is a player-coach role that combines direct scientific contribution with team leadership. You must be committed to working actively alongside your team, at the bench and at the desk, while also setting direction and developing people. Structural biology is integrated into our program teams. You will be a full scientific partner to computational drug discovery, medicinal chemistry, protein sciences, and biology.
Key responsibilities include:
- Partner with the Head of Computational Drug Discovery to shape the future of structural biology at Parabilis, spanning internal capability, external partnerships, and method selection, and translate structural insight into design hypotheses and program recommendations for cross-functional teams and senior leadership. Provide input on investments in external capacity, instrumentation, and software.
- Drive rapid, parallel structure determination of Helicon-mediated complexes. Crystallography delivers the high-resolution detail of the POI and binary POI–Helicon complexes for routine design cycles, while cryo-EM addresses full ternary assemblies where crystallization is unlikely. Pursue both as concurrent paths where appropriate, and add complementary methods (NMR, SAXS, FRET, HDX-MS, cross-linking MS) where they answer program questions faster than full structure determination.
- Improve workflows and turnaround times. Identify bottlenecks, build and automate in-house sample-to-screen workflows, and evaluate automation, software, and AI-enabled tools to deliver high-quality structural information reliably.
- Manage CRO and external capacity to deliver on program timelines, including partner selection, scoping, throughput, and quality and turnaround expectations.
- Lead and develop the team. Work alongside your team, mentor internal scientists, and direct contractors. Set clear technical standards, give constructive feedback, and support scientific growth.
- Partner with computational drug discovery on restraint-guided modeling and structural data infrastructure, using lower-resolution experimental data as quantitative restraints to constrain and validate models of ternary complexes, and helping establish a versioned, programmatically accessible structure repository.
What you’ll need to be successful:
- PhD in Structural Biology, Biophysics, Biochemistry, Chemistry, or a related field, with 8+ years of industry experience and increasing responsibility in a drug discovery setting.
- Deep, hands-on expertise in X-ray crystallography or single-particle cryo-EM, from sample preparation through structure determination and refinement, with working knowledge of the other technique and a willingness to build proficiency.
- A hands-on leadership mindset, with a genuine commitment to working side by side with your team. Experience managing direct reports is preferred.
- Proven impact in biotech or pharmaceutical drug discovery, with structures that informed design decisions, including challenging targets such as protein–protein interactions, degrader ternary complexes, flexible or transient assemblies, or peptide-bound systems.
- Track record managing external structural biology capacity, including CRO selection, scoping, and day-to-day management to agreed timelines and quality standards.
- Practical understanding of complementary methods (NMR, SAXS, HDX-MS, biophysical approaches) and judgment about when each is the fastest route to an answer.
- Fluency with computational colleagues, including how structural data is used in modeling, docking, and free energy calculations, and experimental restraints as modeling input.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills that contribute to a vibrant community of drug hunters.
- Experience with protein production and construct engineering for difficult complexes, automation of crystallization or grid screening, scripting (e.g., Python), or structure-based design of degraders is a plus.
- Demonstrated ability to utilize AI tools for day-to-day work; baseline proficiency is expected, and advanced or innovative use of AI is a strong plus.
- Able to work on-site and attend in-person meetings.
Core Values
Parabilis Medicines is a team of passionate pioneers who are trailblazing the future of precision medicine with the aim of making a meaningful difference in the lives of patients. The company is committed to promoting an inspiring and flourishing working environment for all employees across the business, in all departments, and driving innovation for patient benefit.
- Growth-Minded. We’re inventing a new class of medicines—one applicable to therapeutic targets that have been dreamt about, but always considered impossible to drug. Our work requires us to be curious, humble and adaptable.
- In(ter)dependent. We are fiercely independent as a leader in defying the limitations of current therapeutic modalities, and interdependent as a team as we work collaboratively to shift drug discovery paradigms and provide patients with better treatment options.
- Patient-focused. We are deeply focused on patient outcomes, and all energy in the company is focused on science as it translates to patient impact.
- All-In. We’re All-In on solving some of the hardest scientific challenges and delivering one of the most effective new classes of drugs in history.
The base salary range for this position is $170,000-$200,000, depending on experience, qualifications, and internal practices. Parabilis’s total compensation package also includes an annual target bonus, equity, and a comprehensive suite of competitive benefits designed to support our employees’ overall well-being.
As an equal opportunity employer, Parabilis Medicines values an inclusive workplace and welcomes applicants of all backgrounds and experiences. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other factors prohibited by law.
30 Acorn Park Drive | Cambridge, MA 02140 | www.parabilismed.com
