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Careers as a scientist in a startup

Careers as a scientist in a startup

5 different paths you should consider as a STEM expert

Giammarco Pacifico & Federica Montrone
May 08, 2024

Many scientists who leave academia don’t know which path to take.

If you’re anything like us, you are passionate about a certain topic, and you’ve probably spent sleepless nights reading or working on lab experiments.

And we know many of you wonder how life can be beyond academia.

The reasons for that can be very different. For many people, it’s about the uncertainty of navigating the market and the risks of taking the leap might seem too high, especially if you have only worked in academia and it’s difficult to picture a life outside it.

In this issue, we shed light on the possible careers as a PhD transitioning into a startup.

What can you do as a scientist in a non-academic environment like a startup?

Depending on your expertise, the answer might be very different:

R&D Engineer / Process Engineer

Sometimes innovation is bottom-up. A great product might just start with nerdy and curious geeks who decide to challenge the status quo and discover something that finds its way to a valuable application. A scientist is well acquainted with this method of working, hence R&D is probably a great starting role to fit in.

→ Check out our R&D Engineer guide

If you are more into the translation from research to products and you enjoy optimizing the finest details, you could apply your technical savviness to process engineering roles and give life to something that can finally touch customers and patients.

→ Check out our Process Engineer guide

Technical Manager / Head of Engineering

As your role and experience progress in the company, you might be asked to take up more responsibility. Coordinating and having the full view of all the technical elements, while pushing on technical challenges is a natural career progression, if you’re willing to move from managing tech projects to managing people.

Program / Product Manager

When dealing with a product that has reached some maturity level, things get more complicated and there is much more to do other than R&D.
Program and product managers have the field knowledge and the leadership skills to drive an entire project and coordinate interactions on multiple levels while keeping an eye on how the rest of the world (i.e. competitors) is progressing in the same field.
It requires deep knowledge, which you could have gathered during your studies, and that puts you in a unique position to understand the next move ahead of others to steer the top management decision to a successful product strategy.

Clinical Affairs

If your education is more medical/biological, rather than strictly technical, this is a role where you could thrive as a scientist. Clinical affairs kick in when a product has already shown some technical maturity, with proven lab data and (hopefully) some in-vivo results, through either pre-clinical or clinical studies. To this extent, this role is key in achieving milestones, which are often decisive in a company’s ability to raise Venture Capital investments.

→ Check out our Clinical Affairs guide

MSL (Medical Scientific Liason)

Closely related to clinical/medical affairs, an MSL is the point of contact for the KOLs in the field (Key Opinion Leaders such as doctors and professors).
This role focuses on driving and informing medical strategies based on the interaction and information they gather in the respective areas.
To thrive in this role, be sure you are ready for a day-to-day filled with extensive interactions. Your domain expertise will be very useful to engage with all the different stakeholders, and your good communication skills will be just as important.

Compared to similar paths in a big company, startups give you the unique advantage of shaping your work: your competence in the area will always be precious (and they will get you in the door), but you will need to figure out by yourself how to thrive, pretty much as you proved during your PhD.

Of course, there are many more roles in the industry but most of them are only common in large companies or as the startup gets bigger. These include roles such as Field Application Engineer, Validation Engineer, Product Marketing and more. In early-stage startups, you might take care of some of these functions without a formal title but they will never be your only focus.

We know this might sound like an overwhelming picture, but not many things can be as rewarding and if you pick the right company you will hardly regret this choice.

If you enjoyed this issue, share it with someone interested in different startup roles.

This week's top scientific reads

Antibody Patterns in Multiple Sclerosis (Nature Biotechnology)
AI saves lives (Nature Medicine)
mRNA Vaccine for Glioblastoma (Inside Precision Medicine)
New Insights into Bitter Taste (Nature)
Unveiling Everlasting RNA (Science)

Read the highlights of these articles here.

Latest European funding rounds in health & bio

Vivalyx raised €5M to develop organ preservation solutions 🇩🇪
Ikerian raised €5.7M for their AI-driven software that helps eye doctors better manage and analyse medical images and data 🇨🇭
PlaqueTec raised €7.45M for a platform that identifies biomarkers for the prevention of coronary heart disease 🇬🇧
MindAffect closed a €1.1M Series A for an AI-driven diagnostic system focused on vision, hearing and brain conditions 🇳🇱
MindMetrix secured pre-seed investments for their VR app to help sports professionals improve their mental well-being and performance 🇨🇭
Nebu Flow raised €5.5M for a next-generation nebulizer that helps with drug delivery of respiratory drugs 🇬🇧
Infinitopes closed a €14.9M Seed round to develop cancer vaccines 🇬🇧
SpinEM Robotics raised €10M to commercialize a tracking system for robot-guided spinal surgery 🇫🇷
Testmate Health raised €5.9M for a urine test that gives you results in minutes for the 4 common sexually transmitted diseases 🇨🇭
Vitestro raised €20.5M to develop a robotic blood-drawing device 🇳🇱