PIONEER (Programmable In-Organelle Nucleic-acid Entry, Expression and Retention) is an ambitious UK research consortium from Imperial College London, the University of Bristol, and the University of Glasgow, funded through the UK’s Advanced Research and Innovation Agency’s (ARIA) Precision Mitochondria programme, with a single bold goal: to build, from end to end, the ability to engineer the genome of mitochondria, the energy-producing compartments inside our cells. Mitochondria carry their own small genome, and reliably installing new, synthetic genetic material inside them has long been one of the great unsolved problems in biology. PIONEER sets out to crack it: to deliver large pieces of synthetic mitochondrial DNA across the mitochondria's notoriously difficult double membrane, switch on new genes inside, and make those changes stable over time. Ultimately, PIONEER seeks to demonstrate successful mitochondrial genome engineering in vivo and thereby open a new frontier for fundamental biology and for future therapies against mitochondrial disease.
What makes this work distinctive is how deliberately interdisciplinary it is. PIONEER brings together leaders in nanomaterials and drug delivery; automation, AI and machine learning for chemistry; synthetic cell engineering; single-molecule biophysics; advanced spectroscopy; genome engineering; and single-cell genetics. The whole programme is built so these fields feed into one another rather than working in isolation. You would be joining a large collaborative team of PDRAs and PhD students whose culture is designed to enable early-career researchers to achieve ground-breaking results by working fluidly between disciplines. It is a rare opportunity to work at the intersection of several cutting-edge fields on a problem that will not only bring exciting new fundamental insights but also, if solved, would be a breakthrough for science and humanity.
As part of PIONEER we have a key role available in the form of a Systems Integrator which is a unique, PhD-level coordination role at the centre of our ambitious, ARIA-funded UK consortium with a single goal: to achieve the first end-to-end engineering of the mitochondrial genome. PIONEER brings together Imperial College London, the University of Bristol, and the University of Glasgow across disciplines spanning polymer nanomedicine, AI-driven materials discovery, synthetic cell engineering, single-molecule biophysics, advanced spectroscopy, genome engineering, and single-cell genetics. This is not a conventional project management post – it is the scientific connective tissue of the programme, requiring genuine intellectual engagement with PIONEER’s interdisciplinary science at every level.
PIONEER’s science is organised into multiple interconnected research streams, each gated by pre-specified milestones that must be met before the programme advances. The Systems Integrator must understand these dependencies at a genuine scientific level and must be capable of identifying, flagging, and helping to resolve scientific and operational challenges across a large, geographically dispersed, interdisciplinary team. If you have broad scientific curiosity, exceptional organisational intelligence, and the rare ability to communicate credibly across disciplines that rarely speak to one another, this role was designed for you.
You will coordinate PIONEER’s interconnected research streams, ensuring their tightly gated dependencies function as a coherent programme rather than as parallel projects. Day to day, you will chair consortium meetings, facilitate the weekly, biweekly and monthly catch-up meetings between all cohorts, coordinate thematic away days, and organise the annual all-team meeting rotating across partner institutions. You will lead preparation of all funder progress and annual reports, maintain the master project schedule and risk register, and manage financial reporting with the PIONEER PI and Imperial and Department Finance leads. At various stages you will lead the staged milestone assessment process, supporting research leads in evaluating which approaches have met go/no-go criteria and coordinating resource reallocation where needed. You will support recruitment of all PIONEER researchers across all consortium sites, manage communications with the funder, and act as the primary internal coordination point across the whole programme. Crucially, you will also engage substantively with PIONEER’s science – reading literature across all research areas and contributing to milestone discussions.
We are looking for someone with exceptional scientific breadth, outstanding organisational capability, and the communication skills to operate credibly at every level of the programme. The full person specification is in the job description. Key attributes include:
- A PhD in a relevant scientific discipline – genuine scientific depth is required, and candidates should be able to demonstrate working knowledge of at least two of PIONEER’s scientific areas
- Proven experience coordinating complex, multi-partner scientific programmes, with a strong record in milestone tracking, risk management, and funder reporting
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesise and convey complex, multi-disciplinary information clearly to diverse audiences
- The ability to engage substantively with primary scientific literature across a broad range of disciplines and contribute to milestone and go/no-go discussions
- Excellent organisational skills and meticulous attention to detail, with the ability to manage multiple parallel workstreams across a large, geographically distributed consortium
- Strong interpersonal skills and the resilience to thrive in a fast-paced, high-ambition, mission-driven research environment.
This is a genuinely singular opportunity to be at the centre of one of the UK’s most ambitious and interdisciplinary science programmes. In addition, we offer:
- A five-year, ARIA-funded programme with the resources, scientific ambition, and collaborative network to make a lasting contribution to mitochondrial science and medicine.
- The opportunity to build expertise across one of the most scientifically diverse programmes in UK research – spanning chemistry, AI, biophysics, genome engineering, and single-cell genomics – in a single integrated role.
- Regular engagement with a world-class investigator team across three leading UK universities and with a funder pushing the frontier of high-risk, high-reward science.
- The opportunity to continue your career at a world-leading institution and be part of our mission to continue science for humanity.
- Grow your career: gain access to Imperial’s sector-leading dedicated career support for researchers as well as opportunities for promotion and progression.
- Sector-leading salary and remuneration package (including 41 days off a year and generous pension schemes).
- Be part of a diverse, inclusive and collaborative work culture with various staff networks and resources to support your personal and professional wellbeing.
The position is fixed term, full time, for 5 years.
You will be based at White City Campus. You will be required to travel to South Kensington Campus and to partner universities as necessary. This is a primarily on-site role.
The PIONEER programme is led by Dr. Nazila Kamaly in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London, in partnership with research leads at the Universities of Bristol and Glasgow. The Systems Integrator will be embedded with the PI at Imperial with a coordination remit spanning the full consortium.
If you require any further details about the role, please contact: Dr. Nazila Kamaly – [email protected]
This post is part of an ARIA-funded project, subject to contract negotiations.
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