Senior / Principal Scientist - RNA Engineering for Cell and Gene Therapy

We're hiring - come help shape the future of stem cell and gene therapies.

Plurify is an early-stage, fast-moving biotech building platform technologies to help unlock the next generation of stem cell and gene therapies. Our work targets the most stubborn manufacturing bottlenecks - including the unwanted residual cells and plasmids left behind during cell and gene therapy production - with scalable, precisely targeted solutions. With several Innovate UK grants and strong private backing behind us, we're growing the team.

💡 The Opportunity

This is a senior, RNA-focused role for a scientist who wants to own a technology and push it to the front of the field. RNA engineering for biomanufacturing and therapeutics is the core of the position: designing, building and refining RNA to do powerful new things, and turning deep molecular understanding into platform-defining capabilities. We're looking for someone driven by delivering world-leading innovation - the kind of person who sets the direction rather than waits for it.

You'll bring years of hands-on experience designing and innovating RNA, including developing control elements that function in an RNA context, working with RNA viruses or self-replicating RNA and understanding their biology in depth, and optimising RNA sequence and elements for robust expression and immune interaction. Experience deploying RNA in iPSCs, T cells and other human cell types is highly desirable.

You'd join a tight-knit team of seven and quickly become the internal authority on RNA - the person colleagues turn to, and the one shaping our RNA strategy. The role is built to grow: as the company scales, we expect this person could grow into a team-leadership position, building and leading RNA engineering.

We run on ownership and trust: flexible working, and the freedom to follow strong ideas wherever they serve the mission.

🔬 Key Responsibilities

• Build and test RNA systems for biomanufacturing and therapeutic use, focusing on construct architecture, UTRs, regulatory motifs, and sequence optimization to maximize performance.
• Develop control elements that work in an RNA context - regulatory and switchable elements that give us tunable, conditional control over expression.
• Advance our self-replicating RNA work - apply a deep understanding of RNA viruses and replicon biology to design, build and troubleshoot saRNA systems.
• Optimise sequence and elements for expression, stability, control and manufacturability.
• Optimise deployment of RNA for various cell systems - iPSCs, T cells and other human cell lines.
• Be the thought leader on RNA within the team - the go-to expert who raises the technical bar and mentors others.
• Grow and, in time, lead - build out and head an RNA team as the company scales.
• Represent the science externally - contribute to partnerships, IP and publications, and help position Plurify at the leading edge of RNA.
• Turn data into decisions - design decisive experiments, analyse rigorously, and steer the programme accordingly.