Technical Specialist - Applied Immunology

Application Deadline: 21 September 2025

Department: Programmes

Employment Type: Fixed Term - Full Time

Location: London

Compensation: £68,000 - £99,000 / year

Description

What you'll do

• Act as the technical lead, with the Programme Director and their Programme Specialist, to shape and deliver a bold programme of research aimed at enabling the development of “innate vaccines”.
• Review project proposals, grant applications, assess technical milestones, and stay close to the ground on what’s being built and tested by Creator teams.
• Plan, lead, and contribute to technical discussions in project meetings, workshops, and formal reviews, bringing depth, challenge, and direction to every interaction.
• Provide evidence-based technical insight to the Programme Director and the ARIA team to support high-quality decisions and sharpen the programme’s strategic direction.
• Confidently communicate complex scientific ideas surrounding the programme to stakeholders, from government and funders to key players across the ecosystem.
• Identify emerging trends and surface the most promising technologies, people, and ideas across the programme and its surrounding opportunity space.
• Co-author white papers, open calls, and technical reviews that articulate the ambition of the programme and set a clear, compelling vision for external communities.
• Work closely with the Programme Specialist and Creator teams to drive project delivery, tracking against ambitious technical milestones, benchmarking progress against the state of the art, and spotting opportunities for research cross-pollination to sustain momentum.
• Be the technical bridge between the PD and functional teams, ensuring execution aligns with the needs of the ecosystem's understanding of the programme.

• Represent the programme, often on behalf of the Programme Director, at events, workshops and talks.
• Build trusted relationships with world-class researchers, labs, and founders working at the forefront of the programme’s focus area.
• Work closely with ARIA’s Activation Partners to ensure Creator teams can access the right tools, platforms, and networks to accelerate translation and achieve impact beyond ARIA’s direct reach.

• Collaborate across ARIA on funding models, budgets, tooling, and operational mechanisms to support effective, flexible funding and programme delivery.
• Contribute as a member of ARIA’s team of Technical Specialists (‘T-Specs’), sharing best practices and learnings between programmes to strengthen ARIA’s portfolio of work.
• Help build and sustain ARIA’s scientific and operational culture.
  
  

Who you are

• You have a strong understanding of innate immune mechanisms for antiviral protection.
• You have familiarity with mechanisms of viral pathogenesis across various viruses.
• You have a strong understanding of the drug and vaccine development process.
• You excel in grasping and navigating diverse technical projects.
• You excel at translating complex technical concepts and timelines to diverse stakeholders, effectively bridging gaps between diverse teams and perspectives.
• You are willing to ask questions and can rapidly learn and adapt to new scientific areas, comprehending key components of new technical disciplines.
• You can uncover non-obvious opportunities and risks, connecting teams, ideas, and research threads in novel ways that drive adoption and translation
• Highly adaptable, you are okay with uncertainty and a fast-paced environment.
• You comprehend and articulate complex concepts clearly and with conviction, think and communicate with structure, and interrogate ideas effectively

• You have first-hand exposure to developing immunotherapeutics.
• You have produced large immunological datasets and have analysed them using computational tools.
• You have a strong understanding of the state-of-the-art in synthetic biology, drug delivery technologies, and in vitro models of tissue biology.
• You are well-connected to relevant players across biotech and pharma.
• You have worked in both academia and biotech.
• You have successfully performed technical assignments that require unconventional or novel approaches.
• You are skilled in identifying technical bottlenecks, risk analysis and resolution, tracking technical milestones, and reporting on complex technical projects.
• You have a strong working knowledge of the UK R&D ecosystem.

Benefits

• 27 days annual leave provision, with the option to buy/sell additional days
• Hybrid working arrangements; 60% in office / 40% at home
• Supportive environment for learning and development opportunities
• Enhanced family leave arrangements
• A free and confidential 24/7 employee assistance programme
• 2 days of paid volunteer days
• 5% defined contribution pension scheme with Smart Pension
• Cycle to Work scheme
• An excellent office location in Kings X, London