Scientific Publications Strategist

Palo Alto, CA, United States

About Arc Institute

The Arc Institute is a new scientific institution that conducts curiosity-driven basic science and technology development to understand and treat complex human diseases. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Arc is an independent research organization founded on the belief that many important research programs will be enabled by new institutional models. Arc operates in partnership with Stanford University, UCSF, and UC Berkeley.

While the prevailing university research model has yielded many tremendous successes, we believe in the importance of institutional experimentation as a way to make progress. These include:

Funding: Arc will fully fund Core Investigator’s (PI’s) research groups, liberating scientists from the typical constraints of project-based external grants.

Technology: Biomedical research has become increasingly dependent on complex tooling. Arc Technology Centers develop, optimize and deploy rapidly advancing experimental and computational technologies in collaboration with Core Investigators.

Support: Arc aims to provide first-class support—operationally, financially and scientifically—that will enable scientists to pursue long-term high risk, high reward research that can meaningfully advance progress in disease cures, including neurodegeneration, cancer, and immune dysfunction.

Culture: We believe that culture matters enormously in science and that excellence is difficult to sustain. We aim to create a culture that is focused on scientific curiosity, a deep commitment to truth, broad ambition, and selfless collaboration.

Arc scaled to nearly 100 people in its first year. With $650M+ in committed funding and a state of the art new lab facility in Palo Alto, Arc will continue to grow quickly to several hundred in the coming years.

About the position

The Arc Institute is seeking a Scientific Publications Strategist to join our Scientific Publications team and work closely with our Core Labs to prepare and publish impactful and high-quality scientific manuscripts. The successful candidate will support Arc scientists through the scientific publications process, from storyboarding, to drafting and editing, to interacting with editors and navigating the submission and peer review process. They will become a key scientific and strategic partner for each of Arc’s labs, providing editorial insight into scientific projects and publications strategy and embedding themselves in each lab’s research focus areas. They will also support the Brand and Communications team on lay public-facing science communication including blog posts, press releases, lab websites, and social media where deep scientific expertise is needed.

About you

You are passionate about using what you’ve learned as a scientific journal editor to help scientists better navigate the submission and peer review process

You have always found communicating complex scientific data and ideas to be one of the most rewarding parts of being a scientist

You are intrigued by many different scientific topic areas and always want to learn new things beyond your own area of expertise and provide a generalist perspective

You act as a resource for your friends and colleagues on how to tell compelling scientific stories

You love working directly with students and postdocs and take on a training mindset to help them build scientific writing and publication skills

You’re an ambitious self-starter capable of managing multiple projects simultaneously and adapting your working style to best serve the needs of different Core Investigators

In this position you will

Work closely with Institute faculty, research scientists, postdocs, and graduate students to develop manuscripts for publication in top journals, including advising on the narrative, flow, and scope of the paper; drafting and/or editing manuscripts, cover letters, and responses to reviewers; and providing strategic input into publishing decisions such as journal choice, revision strategy, and rebuttals.

Support Arc’s Brand and Communications team with scientific content for blog posts, social media, and web pages

Provide training across the Institute to support skill development in scientific writing and publishing

Manage several projects at once, spanning scientific focus areas including biotechnology, functional genomics, immuno-oncology, neurodegeneration, and biochemistry

Job Requirements

PhD in a relevant life science discipline and 5+ years of post-PhD experience

At least 2 years of experience as a full-time scientific journal editor, preferably at a broad-scope journal

Broad scientific literacy across the Institute’s research focus areas (functional genomics, neuroscience, immunology, biotechnology, chemical biology)

Experience preparing manuscripts for publication in high-impact journals

Exceptional communication skills

Strong organizational skills with a demonstrated ability to prioritize and drive several concurrent projects

The base salary range for this position is $108,250 to $170,000. These amounts reflect the range of base salary that the Institute reasonably would expect to pay a new hire or internal candidate for this position. The actual base compensation paid to any individual for this position may vary depending on factors such as experience, market conditions, education/training, skill level, and whether the compensation is internally equitable, and does not include bonuses, commissions, differential pay, other forms of compensation, or benefits. This position is also eligible to receive an annual discretionary bonus, with the amount dependent on individual and institute performance factors.

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