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Experimental Systems Intern

Location: Cambridge, MA

Time commitment: Part-time, approximately 25-30 hours per week; schedule must include multiple in-person laboratory days

Duration: 3-6 months, with the potential to transition into a full-time role based on performance, project needs, and mutual interest

Level: Senior undergraduate or master's student 

Introduction

Flagship Pioneering is a company that creates companies, building ground-breaking platforms that change the world. We are a brave and bold organization of creative- thinkers with insurgent mindsets and corporate-builders with incumbent expertise. What if... we could harness the power of data with AI to create breakthroughs and accelerate the creation of new technologies? This is the question that Flagship Pioneering seeks to explore with our latest AI-focused business unit. Our mission is to create, launch, and scale breakthrough ventures that transform how we live, work, and connect. We build companies from zero to one, with cutting-edge AI, exceptional user experience, and a strong vision to pioneer an AI-native future.

The opportunity

We are developing a new method to measure small molecule compounds using an advanced sensor platform. We are seeking a hands-on Experimental Systems Intern to help characterize its performance and establish a rigorous, repeatable experimental workflow.

You will work closely with project leads to design experiments, build and qualify fixtures, execute controlled studies, and maintain a trustworthy record of each experimental run. The work sits at the intersection of chemistry, sensing hardware, and experimental design.

What you will do

• Help design and execute controlled small molecule compounds sensing experiments.
• Build, iterate, and qualify experimental fixtures for headspace exposure, airflow, sample positioning, and environmental control.
• Prepare and run concentration-series, blank, repeatability, recovery, and interference experiments using defined analytes.
• Characterize sensor response, stability, dynamic range, drift, reproducibility, and recovery.
• Follow written protocols precisely; record sample preparation, event timing, environmental conditions, geometry, and deviations in real time.
• Maintain organized experimental records, photographs, metadata, and raw-data handoffs so every run is traceable and reproducible.
• Review QC plots and experiment outputs with the team; help distinguish true sensor response from environmental, handling, or hardware artifacts.
• Use the team's AI-enabled and repository-based infrastructure to support experiment planning, documentation, data review, and workflow execution.
• Contribute practical ideas for automation, fixture improvements, and higher-throughput experiments.

What success looks like

By the end of the internship, you will have helped establish a repeatable experimental workflow that produces decision-quality data, including:

• A documented and reproducible exposure fixture and handling method.
• Controlled analyte-response experiments with appropriate blanks, replicates, recovery periods, and environmental records.
• Clear characterization of key performance variables: response magnitude, repeatability, drift, recovery, and sensitivity to interferents.
• Practical recommendations on the largest sources of variation and the next experiments needed to resolve them. 

Qualifications

Required

• Pursuing or recently completed a BS or MS in chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, mechanical engineering, bioengineering, or a related field.
• Demonstrated hands-on laboratory or experimental experience, ideally involving analytical chemistry, sensors, materials, environmental measurement, microfluidics, or hardware testing.
• Familiarity with experimental controls, replicates, concentration/dilution calculations, contamination control, and basic data interpretation.
• Strong attention to detail and comfort following protocols, recording data contemporaneously, and preserving unexpected or negative results.
• Comfortable building simple fixtures using CAD, 3D printing, laser-cutting, tubing, fasteners, or similar practical tools.
• Ability to work independently at the bench and communicate deviations or uncertainty promptly.

Preferred

• Experience with small molecule sensing, gas sensing, headspace sampling, analytical chemistry, electrochemistry, or materials characterization.
• Basic Python, MATLAB, R, or similar ability to inspect experimental data and QC outputs.
• Experience with Arduino-class hardware, sensors, data acquisition, or laboratory automation.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled development and research tools. Candidates should be able to use such tools critically: verify outputs, preserve source data and decision records, and escalate uncertainty rather than treating AI output as experimental evidence.
• Familiarity with Git-based workflows, structured experiment metadata, and reproducible data-analysis environments.
• Experience handling solvents and following laboratory safety procedures.

Who will thrive

You are a careful experimentalist who likes the physical reality of lab work: preparing samples consistently, controlling variables, improving fixtures, diagnosing artifacts, and generating data that withstands scrutiny.

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The pay range for this role is $25 - $40 per hour. This role is a short-term engagement that is not eligible for health and welfare benefits. Retirement benefits may be available after completing a set number of hours. Compensation and benefits information is based on Flagship Pioneering's good faith estimate as of the date of publication and may be modified in the future.