Scientist 3, In Vivo Translational Imaging

About the role

In the Department of Translational Imaging, you will drive preclinical and translational imaging research to help deliver life-changing healthcare solutions. You will work in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment, moving between in vivo experimentation, preclinical MRI/PET scanner operation, quantitative analysis and AI-enabled computational workflows to turn imaging data into therapeutic discoveries. This is a lab-based role at the South San Francisco, CA campus with onsite presence required; relocation benefits are available.

Key responsibilities

• Design, execute and optimize in vivo preclinical imaging studies following approved ethical, compliance and safety standards.
• Operate and refine preclinical MRI protocols, applying quantitative methods to characterize anatomy, microstructure, physiology and treatment responses.
• Support multimodal imaging by integrating nuclear imaging (PET/SPECT) and biodistribution data.
• Develop and maintain reproducible image-processing pipelines for registration, segmentation, feature extraction and longitudinal analysis.
• Build scalable analysis code in Python on HPC clusters using containers and GPU acceleration.
• Apply AI tools, prompting techniques and coding agents to speed prototyping and improve code documentation.
• Partner with biologists, pharmacologists and research leaders to turn imaging endpoints into scientific decisions.

Required profile

• Advanced degree (Ph.D. or equivalent) in Biomedical Engineering, Biophysics, Physics, Imaging Science, Computer Science or a related quantitative discipline.
• Hands-on experience or demonstrated comfort with in vivo model procedures in regulated research settings.
• Strong working knowledge of MRI physics and image formation, including pulse sequences, contrast mechanisms, signal-to-noise optimization and artifact mitigation.
• Experience analyzing 3D/4D quantitative imaging data with Python in Linux and Git environments.
• Fluency with AI-assisted computational tools, LLM prompting or coding agents.

Preferred

• Hands-on experience with preclinical PET or SPECT acquisition, reconstruction and biodistribution analysis.
• Custom MRI pulse sequences, reconstruction algorithms, quantitative imaging biomarkers or contrast-agent dynamics.
• Computer vision, image processing and machine learning/deep learning for biomedical image analysis.
• HPC cluster experience with Slurm, Docker/Apptainer/Singularity and GPU acceleration.
• Additional tools such as MATLAB, R, C++, ITK, 3D Slicer.
• Background in drug discovery, translational medicine or oncology/neuroscience biomarkers.

What we offer

• Expected salary range of $103,400 to $192,000, depending on experience, qualifications and location.
• A discretionary annual bonus may be available.
• The position qualifies for the benefits described in the original posting.