Associate/ Senior Associate, Molly Gibson’s Pioneering Business Unit (PBU))

THE ROLE As an Associate or Senior Associate at Flagship Pioneering in Molly Gibson’s Pioneering Business Unit (PBU), you will ideate, research, and refine novel venture hypotheses, validate key underlying unknowns of biology or technology and transition pressure-tested ideas into building a NewCo around the science. You will help drive every facet of company origination from the early stages including identification and recruitment of critical partners and advisors, establishment of foundational IP, hiring and leadership of the early scientific team, and establishment of working norms and culture for the team. In this role you will partner with stakeholders across the broader Flagship ecosystem to bring the full experience of Flagship to support your companies. A successful candidate will become the expert on the foundational science of the company, frame and clearly communicate the strategy, and translate that strategy into a plan and lead operationalization of that plan alongside a Principal or Partner on the venture creation team. THE COMPANY Flagship Pioneering is a scientific innovation engine that invents and builds companies that change the world. We bring together the greatest scientific minds with entrepreneurial company builders and assemble the capital to allow them to take courageous leaps in human health, sustainability, and beyond. What sets Flagship apart is our ability to advance biotechnology by uniting life science innovation, company creation, and capital investment under one roof in a way that is largely without precedent. Our team of scientists, entrepreneurial leaders, and professional capital managers are each aligned around an institutionalized process that enables us to innovate and create breakthroughs for the benefit of people and planet. Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity’s most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture. Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies, and has been named four times to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Contribute to and lead Flagship model explorations to rapidly assess interesting areas of science and develop novel, actionable and high value venture hypotheses Outline key scientific questions to enable venture hypotheses and develop experimental plans to rapidly create value and pressure test ideas Identify, build, and maintain relationships with appropriate academic KOLs and thought experts, ie, introducing them to the Flagship model, getting early buy-in, vetting/validation and de-risking key concepts of venture hypotheses Understand IP landscape, formulate initial strategy, and write seminal applications for the technology and company. Assess patentability of existing IP landscape, including of key competitors and of potentially licensable estate Develop corporate strategy and operations plan for the company. Define value creation, identify application spaces, build out organizational chart, define company goals, timelines and resourcing and identify strategic inflection points to set the company on the path to rapid growth and success Develop audience-specific pitches for company Support business development activities and continue to evolve the story Manage and coordinate early scientific and IP employees. Source, recruit and manage KOLs and early-stage employees as well as relationships with CROs Manage & lead scientific team (internal or external) and daily research. Manage operational tasks, including establishing lab facilities, purchasing, HR, real estate acquisition, etc. Become institutional subject matter exp