Imaging Specialist

We are Arcadia Science an evolutionary biology company founded and led by scientists. Our mission is to turn natural innovations into real-world solutions by developing systematic and quantitative approaches to leveraging biology for therapeutics R&D. We share our research as openly as possible to accelerate discovery and make our work broadly useful.

We are seeking an Imaging Specialist to operate our microscopy core and serve as the technical anchor for imaging across Arcadia. Microscopy at Arcadia is a platform capability not a service desk. The core is built to enable high-content imaging of diverse organisms from 2 to 250 µm on timescales from milliseconds to hours using both label-free and reporter-based approaches.

Our current footprint includes an inverted Nikon Ti2-E spinning disk confocal with Yokogawa CSU-W1 SoRa for high-resolution low-phototoxicity imaging; an upright Nikon widefield system with a Kinetix sCMOS camera for fast cellular and sub-cellular dynamics (500 fps full chip faster in ROI) and a Leica Stellaris 8 for coherent Raman scattering (CRS) and fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) for label-free molecular fingerprinting.

The Imaging Specialist owns the operational reliability and scientific utility of this infrastructure. They train users consult on experimental design from sample prep through analysis run acquisitions for collaborators build automated workflows and contribute to publications that share our protocols with the broader community. They also act as a liaison to external vendors to coordinate advanced trainings troubleshoot issues identify gaps in current workflows and demo new tools to fill them. This role reports to the Core Technologies Lead. The ideal candidate is a hands-on imaging scientist who can keep complex instruments running design experiments alongside scientists across the organization and turn one-off solutions into reusable infrastructure. This is an individual contributor role.

• Operate maintain and troubleshoot all microscopy and spectroscopy instruments in the core; manage scheduling service contracts and vendor relationships

• Consult with scientists across the company on imaging experiments sample preparation image acquisition image processing and analysis and identify which tools and workflows fit the scientific question

• Provide training and ongoing technical support on confocal widefield super-resolution FLIM Raman and CARS systems

• Run acquisitions on behalf of collaborators when the science calls for it and hand off cleanly when it doesnt; perform sample prep where needed

• Build document and maintain automated acquisition workflows that scale from one-off experiments to high-content datasets across diverse organisms

• Develop and refine image processing and analysis pipelines (FIJI CellProfiler Python-based) to keep pace with the data we generate

• Maintain SOPs training documentation and the microscope issue tracker so the core stays reproducible and easy to onboard into

• Identify gaps in our imaging capabilities and propose scope and execute on capability expansions

• Co-author open pubs on imaging methods protocols and datasets; share workflows externally via and our repos so others can adopt them quickly

• Partner with the Core Technologies and Validation teams to integrate imaging with automation data infrastructure and downstream analysis

• PhD in cell biology biophysics bioengineering or a related field with at least 3 years of hands-on experience running or supporting an imaging core advanced microscopy lab or equivalent

• Deep technical fluency with confocal widefield and super-resolution microscopy; familiarity with FLIM Raman or CRS is a strong plus

• Demonstrated ability to maintain and troubleshoot complex optical systems including light paths lasers cameras and stage automation

• Direct experience designing imaging experiments on live samples across multiple organisms or cell types

• Programming experience (Python required; familiarity with bash version control and macro/script-level automation in FIJI or NIS-Elements)

• Track record of building reproducible workflows SOPs automated acquisition routines analysis pipelines that other scientists actually use

• Strong written and verbal communication; you can write up a protocol or a pub clearly and quickly

• Commitment to open science. We publish protocols code and data openly and expect you to participate

• Comfortable working across cell biology microbiology and non-model organism systems

• Thrives in a fast-paced on-site environment with shifting scientific priorities and a high volume of collaborator requests

• Experience with high-content screening label-free imaging modalities or quantitative phenotyping at scale

• Hands-on with microfabrication for imaging (e.g. microchambers PDMS molding) or other sample prep innovation

• Background in image analysis with deep learning approaches (Cellpose StarDist custom models)

• Experience standing up a core from scratch or leading a major capability expansion as an individual contributor