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Profluent

AI-designed bespoke proteins for genetic therapies

Executive Director / Vice President - Biology & Translational Pharmacology

Full-Time
$270k - $340k+ Equity participation + 401(k) employer match
Expert
PharmD, PhD, MD, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM)
Emeryville, CA, USA
In Person
Biology & BiotechTranslational Research & Bench Biology
No H1B Sponsorship

About the job

Requirements
  • A PhD in a related discipline and 12 or more years of biopharma research and development experience, with a strong track record in genetic medicines, liver biology, translational pharmacology, and preclinical development.
  • A demonstrated track record advancing multiple therapeutic programs from concept through development candidate nomination; experience advancing at least one program into IND-enabling studies or clinical development is strongly preferred.
  • Deep experience with genetic medicines or advanced therapeutic modalities, such as RNA interference, antisense oligonucleotides, messenger RNA/lipid nanoparticle therapeutics, gene therapy, genome editing, or related platforms.
  • Deep understanding of liver biology and metabolic disease, including connecting human genetics, disease biology, pharmacology, biomarkers, translational models, and development strategy.
  • Extensive experience with rare liver diseases, lipid biology, hepatology, fibrosis biology, and/or metabolic liver disease.
  • Experience designing and interpreting in vivo pharmacology studies, including rodent and/or nonhuman primate studies evaluating pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, biodistribution, dose response, target engagement, pharmacodynamic biomarkers, durability, efficacy, and tolerability.
  • Demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary scientific teams, including direct management of senior scientists or functional leaders and leadership of matrixed drug-discovery project teams.
  • Working knowledge of IND-enabling requirements, toxicology interfaces, chemistry, manufacturing and controls considerations, bioanalytical assay needs, and regulatory expectations sufficient to guide program-level decisions.
  • Written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to tailor scientific and strategic messages for technical project teams, senior executives, board members, external advisors, partners, and generalist investors.
  • Direct experience or at least high-level familiarity with gene-editing proteins such as nucleases, base editors, prime editors, or recombinases.
  • Applicants must have ongoing work authorization in the United States that does not require employer sponsorship.
Responsibilities
  • Build and oversee a high-performing liver biology and translational pharmacology organization, including direct management of program and in vivo pharmacology leaders.
  • Lead scientific strategy and execution for two to three liver-directed genetic medicine programs, translating the customized base editor platform into a differentiated portfolio for severe inborn metabolic diseases.
  • Provide accountable leadership for cross-functional therapeutic program teams, integrating translational biology, genome editing, protein engineering, delivery, pharmacology, bioanalytics, chemistry, manufacturing and controls, regulatory, and preclinical development expertise.
  • Partner with functional leaders to define program resourcing, critical-path activities, timelines, risks, and key experiments needed to deliver development candidates and IND-ready data packages.
  • Guide in vivo pharmacology strategy across rodent and nonhuman primate studies, including model selection, dose strategy, biodistribution, editing activity, durability, target engagement, pharmacodynamic biomarkers, tolerability, and translational relevance.
  • Apply liver and metabolic disease expertise to design experiments that distinguish mechanism, causality, pharmacology, and therapeutic impact across genetically defined disease contexts.
  • Apply scientific judgment to experimental design, data interpretation, and program decision-making, ensuring studies are efficient, well-controlled, and capable of supporting clear go/no-go decisions.
  • Translate the established liver portfolio vision into actionable program strategy for selected targets, while contributing to future prioritization of genetically defined opportunities in liver and other tissues.
  • Represent program strategy, data, risks, and recommendations to executive leadership, board members, external advisors, potential partners, investors, and collaborators.
  • Cultivate a collaborative, execution-oriented culture that moves quickly while maintaining scientific rigor, thoughtful prioritization, and high standards for data quality.
Desired Qualifications
  • Direct experience advancing at least one therapeutic program into IND-enabling studies or clinical development is strongly preferred.
  • Direct experience with genome editing is valuable but not required.

About the company

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Profluent

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Website

Profluent.bio designs custom proteins for genetic medicines using artificial intelligence. Its core offering is bespoke protein solutions tailored to therapeutic needs for pharmaceutical and biotech partners, helping advance treatments for genetic diseases. The product works by applying AI to optimize protein design, effectively decoding the “language of life” to create proteins that extend beyond natural or existing patented options. Partners collaborate on projects, with revenue coming from upfront fees, milestones, and royalties on successful commercialization of therapies that use their proteins. The company differentiates itself by combining AI-driven protein design with a partnership model in the gene editing and synthetic biology space, aiming to deliver more effective and precise treatments while enabling cost-efficient development. The goal is to accelerate genetic medicine by providing optimized proteins that enable new or improved therapies for genetic diseases.

Company Size

51-200

Company Stage

Late Stage VC

Total Funding

$149M

Headquarters

Emeryville, California

Founded

2022

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Lilly’s April 28, 2026 deal reaches $2.25 billion in milestones and royalties.
  • BioMarin’s September 30, 2026 collaboration validates Profluent’s enzyme-design platform with another top pharma.
  • ARPA-H’s July 9, 2026 award with GEMMABio expands Profluent into funded rare-disease programs.

What critics are saying

  • Lilly controls exclusive rights on April 28, 2026 recombinases, limiting Profluent’s downstream value.
  • No Profluent program has reached clinical proof; preclinical biology failure remains the core timeline risk.
  • If BioMarin and Lilly internalize design workflows, Profluent becomes a replaceable vendor by 2027.

What makes Profluent unique

  • Profluent’s Protein Atlas spans 115 billion sequences, enabling unusually broad protein design.
  • It sells AI-designed recombinases, base editors, and enzymes, not single-program tooling.
  • OpenCRISPR-1 gives Profluent a public, validated gene-editor showcase and licensing leverage.

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Benefits

  • Health Insurance
  • Unlimited Paid Time Off

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

1%

1 year growth

-5%

2 year growth

4%
Pharmaceutical Business Review
Oct 1st, 2026
BioMarin and Profluent partner on AI-designed enzyme therapies.

BioMarin and Profluent partner on AI-designed enzyme therapies. Recommended companies. BioMarin Pharmaceutical has entered a research collaboration with Profluent to design and optimise novel enzyme therapies for its drug development pipeline. Under the agreement, Profluent will deploy its proprietary suite of protein language models to generate new potential drug candidates. BioMarin will screen and evaluate the computational outputs to identify molecules with the desired target activity and stability profiles, advancing selected candidates into preclinical testing. The creation and optimisation of therapeutic enzymes is typically a complex undertaking that requires extensive protein engineering and screening. Profluent will conduct the computational design work using the Profluent Protein Atlas, a dataset of more than 115 billion unique protein sequences and reportedly the world's largest protein sequence repository. BioMarin intends to use these foundation models to rapidly assess alternative protein structures before selecting candidates for further laboratory evaluation. BioMarin vice-president and metabolic conditions research head Pooja Agarwal said: "Profluent's AI models represent the kind of external innovation that can complement our own capabilities and help us move promising science forward faster. "By combining Profluent's approach to de novo protein design and optimisation with BioMarin's decades of expertise in enzyme therapies, we have an opportunity to identify promising candidates more efficiently for people with significant unmet need." Profluent CEO Ali Madani said: "BioMarin has one of the most credible track records in enzyme therapies, spending decades successfully advancing drugs through the clinic to improve the lives of patients. "We're excited to accelerate BioMarin's drug discovery pipeline and unlock new medicines by combining the strengths of our latest foundation models for protein design with their deep track record of getting therapies to patients." Founded in 2022 and based in Emeryville, California, Profluent develops biological foundation models intended for applications across medicine, agriculture, and other fields. The company's financial backers include AIX Ventures, Air Street Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Altimeter Capital, Insight Partners, Convergent Ventures, and Spark Capital. In April, BioMarin Pharmaceutical completed its acquisition of Amicus Therapeutics in an all-cash deal for a total equity value of nearly $4.8bn. Enter your email address so we can get in touch.

Business Wire
Sep 30th, 2026
Profluent Partners with BioMarin to design novel medicines using AI.

Profluent Partners with BioMarin to design novel medicines using AI. * Collaboration pairs Profluent's AI models with BioMarin's enzyme replacement therapy expertise to advance next-generation candidates for genetically defined conditions EMERYVILLE, Calif.-(BUSINESS WIRE)-Profluent, the frontier AI lab for biology, today announced a collaboration with BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. to design and optimize novel enzyme therapies for BioMarin's pipeline. Under the agreement, Profluent will apply its foundational AI models to generate novel potential drug candidates, and BioMarin will screen the results with the goal to eventually advance the most promising designs. Profluent's AI models represent the kind of external innovation that can complement its own capabilities and help Business Wire, Inc. move promising science forward faster. Share Developing and optimizing therapeutic enzymes is a complex process that can require extensive protein engineering and screening. Profluent will design and optimize enzyme candidates using its suite of proprietary protein language models, which use the Profluent Protein Atlas, the largest protein sequence dataset in the world composed of more than 115 billion unique sequences. BioMarin will leverage Profluent's AI models to rapidly explore protein designs to identify potential candidates with desired activity and stability profiles for further evaluation and advance the most promising candidates into preclinical testing. "Profluent's AI models represent the kind of external innovation that can complement our own capabilities and help us move promising science forward faster," said Pooja Agarwal, Ph.D., Vice President and Head of Metabolic Conditions Research at BioMarin. "By combining Profluent's approach to de novo protein design and optimization with BioMarin's decades of expertise in enzyme therapies, we have an opportunity to identify promising candidates more efficiently for people with significant unmet need." "BioMarin has one of the most credible track records in enzyme therapies, spending decades successfully advancing drugs through the clinic to improve the lives of patients," said Ali Madani, CEO of Profluent. "We're excited to accelerate BioMarin's drug discovery pipeline and unlock new medicines by combining the strengths of our latest foundation models for protein design with their deep track record of getting therapies to patients." About Profluent Profluent is the frontier AI lab for biology. Profluent builds powerful foundation models for all of life's molecules, unlocking solutions that transform medicine, agriculture, and beyond. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Emeryville, CA, Profluent is backed by leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Spark Capital, Insight Partners, Air Street Capital, AIX Ventures, and Convergent Ventures. To learn more, visit www.profluent.bio or follow the company on LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.

AI Software Services
May 5th, 2026
Unlocking AI innovation in finance medicine and music.

Unlocking AI innovation in finance medicine and music. Published on May 05, 2026 GENETIC MEDICINE REVOLUTION: AI AND BIOTECH JOIN FORCES. In a groundbreaking partnership, Lilly and AI-driven Profluent Bio are teaming up in a deal worth up to $2.25 billion to develop advanced DNA editing tools. Their goal? To create precise treatments for genetic conditions that currently lack effective solutions, using innovative AI models to design enzymes that can target multiple mutations in the genome. This collaboration aims to unlock the "holy grail" of genetic medicine through kilobase-scale DNA editing. This matters because it could transform how AI Software Services treat genetic diseases, offering hope to millions who suffer from conditions deemed untreatable. The tools being developed are likely to be accessible, lowering barriers to entry in a field that has traditionally been expensive and exclusive. Imagine a startup that provides a platform for creators and developers to access these AI-driven genetic editing tools, enabling them to innovate and create personalized therapies. This could attract investors eager to support the next wave of medical breakthroughs!

Pharmaceutical Technology
Apr 29th, 2026
Eli Lilly bets on recombinases in $2.25bn Profluent R&D pact.

Eli Lilly bets on recombinases in $2.25bn Profluent R&D pact. The pair will harness AI to discover and develop recombinases for precise, large-scale gene editing. Eli Lilly is locking down on its rapid expansion strategy with a second deal this week - joining forces with artificial intelligence (AI) biotech, Profluent, to develop recombinases for large-scale gene editing. The deal, which will see Lilly hand over an undisclosed upfront payment and funding for Profluent's R&D efforts, could deem the biotech eligible for $2.25bn in development and commercial milestones. Profluent will also see tiered royalties on net sales if any of the developed recombinases were to make it to market. Through this partnership, Lilly and Profluent will work across multiple programmes, which will focus on developing and commercialising site-specific recombinases for diseases with "severe unmet needs". To achieve this, Profluent will take an AI-driven approach - using the technology to create and optimise custom recombinases targeting exact locations in the genome to enable large-scale, precise DNA editing. Under the deal's terms, Lilly will also gain the exclusive rights to take selected recombinases through both early and clinical development to commercialisation. According to Profluent, altering DNA on a kilobase scale could help address the variation in mutations often seen across patients with genetic diseases - potentially allowing more patients in a heterogeneous population to gain benefit compared with the one-size-fits-all approach taken by standard knock-out and base editing methods. In a statement, Profluent's co-founder and CEO, Ali Madani, noted that kilobase-scale DNA editing is the "holy grail in genetic medicine," and AI is the only way to truly unlock the potential of designer recombinases for any location in the genome. Lilly forges on with dealmaking spree. Lilly's partnership with Profluent is not the big pharma's first foray into the world of recombinases, as the company previously forged a $1.12bn collaboration with German biotech, Seamless Therapeutics, to develop recombinase-based therapies for hearing loss in January 2026. The Indiana-based pharma, alongside Johnson & Johnson, also poured funds into an $85m financing raised by in vivo gene editing startup, Stylus Medicine - supporting the development of its cancer therapies. Alongside its activity in the recombinase space, Lilly has been on somewhat of a dealmaking spree over the first months of 2026, having handed over $21bn to acquire six biotechs across operating areas like oncology, immunology and cardiovascular diseases. Most recently, the pharma company bought Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitor specialist, Ajax Therapeutics, for $2.3bn - potentially expanding its presence in the blood cancer market. Lilly's deal-heavy strategy is similarly mirrored across the pharmaceutical space, as companies look to restock their pipelines amid the looming patent expiries facing their portfolios. Give your business an edge with its leading industry insights.

Tech in Asia
Apr 29th, 2026
Eli Lilly signs $2.3B AI gene-editing deal with Profluent to develop DNA medicines

Eli Lilly has signed a deal worth up to $2.25 billion with Profluent, an AI biotech startup, to develop DNA-editing medicines using AI-designed proteins called recombinases. The partnership gives Lilly exclusive rights to any resulting medicines, though upfront fees and disease targets were not disclosed. The collaboration focuses on inserting kilobase-scale DNA sequences into specific genome locations, aiming to surpass CRISPR/Cas9's capabilities. Profluent CEO Ali Madani described this as the "holy grail" of genetic medicine. The deal extends Lilly's AI drug discovery push, following a $1.12 billion agreement with Seamless Therapeutics in January. Profluent also released OpenCRISPR-1, an open-source AI-generated gene editor that matched SpCas9's efficiency whilst reducing unintended edits by 95% in human cell tests.