Pharmaceutical Lab Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Most formulation technologies optimize around the margins. Through our Solusalt™ platform, we're pioneering an entirely new class of pharmaceutical salts designed to redefine how poorly soluble small molecules are developed and delivered.

Protected by foundational composition-of-matter IP, Solusalt has demonstrated compelling preclinical performance across multiple molecules and is supported by the resources needed to build a category-defining platform company. You'll join an experienced team whose members have held scientific and leadership roles at Pfizer, Amgen, Novartis, Gilead, and Vertex.

We're looking for the scientist who wants to build the world's leading formulation organization around that platform. You'll build and lead our newly opened research facility from the ground up, establish the scientific standards that define our platform, and grow the team that transforms breakthrough formulation science into differentiated medicines.

Build a lab from the ground up. Lead the scientific direction of a proprietary platform technology. Work directly with founders and executive leadership. Publish, patent, and shape the future of the platform. Hire and mentor the next generation of scientists. Influence collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies. Own meaningful equity in an early-stage company.

You’ll report directly to our Chief Scientific Officer and serve as the leader responsible for building PKx’s Pharmaceutical Sciences organization. This is a hands‑on leadership role where you’ll define how formulation science is executed across the company while remaining deeply engaged in the science itself.

Expect roughly half your time in experimental leadership — designing studies, interpreting data, solving challenging formulation problems, and stepping into the lab when your expertise has the greatest impact. About a third building and developing a high‑performing scientific team and establishing the systems, workflows, and culture that enable exceptional science. The remainder working directly with pharmaceutical partners — leading technical discussions, guiding feasibility assessments, and helping translate the Solusalt platform into successful development programs. You’ll also partner closely with our Data Science team to build an AI‑enabled research organization where computational insight and experimental science work together to accelerate discovery and decision‑making.

• A world‑class pharmaceutical sciences organization: Build and lead a high‑performing team of 3–5 scientists and research associates, with a culture of rigor, urgency, and collaboration.
• A research laboratory built for scale: Design the workflows, operating standards, and infrastructure for efficient, reproducible, development‑ready science.
• Decision‑quality scientific data: Generate high‑quality pre‑formulation and formulation data — solubility, salt forms, dissolution, stability, physicochemical characterization — that drives development decisions and enables partnerships.
• A partner‑ready platform: Establish approaches that let partners confidently evaluate and apply Solusalt while protecting PKx’s proprietary know‑how.
• An AI‑enabled research engine: Partner with Data Science so computational tools become routine in experimental design and decision‑making.
• What we’re looking for: We’re looking for someone who has built exceptional formulation organizations, solved difficult scientific problems, and wants the opportunity to build something enduring. We value demonstrated impact over credentials; if you’ve done the work and can lead at this level, we’d love to talk.

Deep expertise in preformulation and formulation science — solubility, salt forms, dissolution, stability, and physicochemical characterization — typically developed over 10+ years of advancing small‑molecule therapeutics. A PhD is welcome but not required; demonstrated expertise matters more than credentials. A demonstrated ability to build and lead high‑performing scientific teams. You’ve created environments where talented scientists do their best work, not simply managed experiments. Proven ability to design experiments and translate data into clear development decisions, and to advance early‑stage work into reproducible, development‑ready approaches. Credibility across functions and with external partners. Whether working with CROs, CDMOs, or pharmaceutical collaborators, you’re known for scientific rigor, practical problem‑solving, and sound judgment. Comfort in data‑driven environments and genuine curiosity about working alongside data scientists.

Solubility‑enabling approaches (amorphous systems, complexation, salt forms); reformulation or 505(b)(2) strategies; platform technologies in partner‑facing settings; early CMC, scale‑up, or process robustness; AI/ML in R&D; startup or emerging‑biotech experience.

You enjoy building more than maintaining. You’re energized by solving difficult scientific problems. You hold yourself and your team to a high standard of scientific rigor. You’re comfortable making decisions with imperfect information. You see ambiguity as an opportunity, not a barrier. You care as much about developing people as developing technology.

PKx Bio’s commercial operations are based in New York City; this role is based full‑time at our new R&D facility in San Leandro, California — one of the most accessible lab locations in the Bay Area, on BART and the 880 corridor within easy reach of the East Bay, Peninsula, and San Francisco.

Base salary $230,000 – $250,000, placed by demonstrated expertise. Meaningful early‑team equity — you’d build and lead PKx’s pharmaceutical sciences organization.

• Medical, dental, vision, and more.
• Relocation support available where it’s the deciding factor.

We respect your time — four steps: a phone screen with our CSO, a panel interview, an onsite interview with the CSO, and a final conversation with our CEO. We make decisions within two weeks of the final interview, and we share the compensation range up front — it’s at the top of this posting.

PKx Bio is an equal opportunity employer and evaluates candidates on job‑related skills. Accommodations available on request.