Research Project Coordinator Full Time

TruDiagnostic is the leader in epigenetics. We believe DNA methylation is the most powerful lens we have on human health and aging and we’ve built the science to prove it. We hold the world’s largest private DNA methylation database, and our algorithms are co-developed and peer-reviewed alongside the top names in the field: Harvard, Yale, Duke, and Stanford. Those collaborations have produced landmark tools like OMICmAge (with Harvard) and SYMPHONYAge (with Yale), and our work runs through 115+ research partnerships and 300+ research studies. When the science of epigenetic aging moves forward, it tends to move through us.

We’re also one of the most prolific publishers in the field. We don’t keep our methods behind a curtain – we put them through peer review and into the literature, because being the most rigorous team in epigenetics is the whole point.

And we’re a place people love to work. We run lean, fast, and entrepreneurial – a 74 eNPS culture where people are trusted with real ownership and given room to run. This role sits right in the middle of that: our Bioinformatics team runs the studies that turn lab data into the insights powering our products and research, our Lab team in Lexington generates the raw data those studies depend on, and this role lives at the seam between them. For the right person – driven, self-motivated, entrepreneurial – it’s an amazing amount of runway: to learn at the frontier of a field that’s still being written, to grow the role around your strengths, and to grow with a company that invests heavily in its best people.

Why this role exists

The Research Project Coordinator is a cross functional manager of projects that impact our Bioinformatics and Lab teams. Based on-site in Lexington, this person owns the day-to-day coordination of Bioinformatics-driven studies inside the lab – managing timelines, designing protocols, tracking samples, ensuring protocol adherence – and serving as the in-person point of contact for a remote Bioinformatics team.

Beyond our internal studies, this person also helps project manage our external R&D collaborations – including our ongoing work with L’Oréal – owning timelines and execution on partner research that runs through the lab.

This role reports to the Director of Bioinformatics and works closely with Lab leadership and our lab technician team. It is not a bioinformatician role – but it does require enough scientific and technical literacy to translate fluently between two highly technical teams that don’t share an office, and to write and adapt analysis scripts when the work calls for it.

What you’ll do

1. Own Bioinformatics study execution inside the lab. Track every study from kickoff through sample completion.
2. Project manage across two teams. Maintain study timelines, status, and blockers. Run weekly check-ins with Bioinformatics and Lab leadership. Surface risk early before it becomes a missed deadline.
3. Own R&D and partner projects. Help drive our external research collaborations – including our L’Oréal work – from end to end. Read the underlying research (e.g. how skin-tape sampling works), understand the science well enough to anticipate problems, and take ownership of getting studies through the lab on time.
4. Be the in-person eyes and hands for a virtual team. Walk the bench, observe protocols in real time, catch issues that wouldn’t show up on a status report, and translate what you’re seeing back to a Bioinformatics team that can’t be there themselves.
5. Translate between Lab and Bioinformatics. Bioinformatics will hand you protocol specs, sample requirements, data formats, and scripts. You’ll read them, understand what they’re doing, ask sharp clarifying questions, and explain the why to the Lab team. When Lab has questions or constraints, you carry them back to Bioinformatics in a form they can act on.
6. Write, modify, and run analysis scripts. This is a hands-on coding role, not just a coordination one. Each week you’ll run an existing failure-check script on newly processed samples and handle those samples in the portal based on defined – and sometimes subjective, scientifically-driven – logic. You’ll improve that script over time (efficiency, new features) and write short R/Python scripts to generate plots that compare protocols, plates, and study conditions for the Bioinformatics team.
7. Use Claude as a daily tool. Claude is core to how we work. You’ll use it to draft updates, structure project plans, parse and write scripts, troubleshoot, and accelerate the day-to-day. We expect you to walk in already fluent – we are not going to teach you how to use it.
8. Pitch in at the bench when needed. This is primarily a coordination role, but you’ll occasionally support sample prep, QC, and protocol execution – especially when a study has tight timing or unusual handling.
9. Be the detail-orientedness layer. Double-check sample IDs, metadata, freezer locations, protocol adherence, and data hand-offs.
10. Build the system. Help us put light process around Bioinformatics study requests – intake, prioritization, status visibility, and post-study debriefs – so this work scales without scaling headcount.

What we’re looking for

Requirements:

• A degree in a life sciences field – Biology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, or similar. BS is the floor; MS is welcome.
• 2-3 years of research experience in an academic lab, university research facility, or industry research setting.
• Hands-on lab work experience. Comfort with bench fundamentals – sample handling, basic molecular biology techniques, lab notebook discipline, SOP adherence. You don’t need to be at the bench every day in this role, but you need to know how a lab runs.
• A problem-solver who reads the science. You can pick up a research paper or protocol – including skin-tape and similar sampling methods – understand it, and turn it into something the lab can execute. You’re genuinely curious about this kind of work.
• Hands-on Claude experience. You use Claude regularly – for research, writing, code, project planning – and can show us how. This is non-negotiable.
• R or Python coding ability. Comfortable reading, modifying, writing and running scripts; comfortable on the command line. You don’t need to be a software engineer, but you should have used R or Python for real research work, and you’ll be writing and adapting analysis scripts in this role.
• Strong attention to detail. A track record of catching issues before they become problems.
• Strong written and verbal communicator. Comfortable bridging a remote team and an in-person team.
• Self-directed. Stays organized and on track without close oversight, and takes real ownership of the projects on their plate.

Nice to have:

• Genetics, epigenetics, or genomics lab experience. DNA methylation or array work is a strong plus.
• Coursework or project experience in bioinformatics or computational biology.
• LIMS and Notion experience.
• Project management experience, formal or informal.
• Prior exposure to industry research environments (vs. purely academic).