Technical Sales Specialist - Synthetic Biology (San Diego)

Technical Sales Specialist – Synthetic Biology & Automation

Location: San Diego, CA

Reports to: President & CEO (Commercial Lead)

Base Salary: $150,000–$180,000 annually + annual performance-based incentive (bonus percentage – 20%)

PLEASE NOTE: Candidates must currently be based in San Diego, CA. Due to the urgency of this hire and desired start timeline, we are unable to accommodate relocation. San Francisco Bay Area candidates MAY be considered on an exception basis, and if they are willing and able to travel to San Diego frequently, potentially on a near-weekly basis.

About Telesis Bio

Telesis Bio is transforming how researchers move from digital biological designs to physical DNA. As artificial intelligence and computational biology dramatically accelerate the design of therapeutic candidates, a new challenge is emerging: turning those digital designs into physical biology quickly enough to test, learn, and iterate. Telesis Bio is helping close that gap.

Our synthetic biology technologies, including the Gibson SOLA® platform, enable researchers to rapidly access high-quality synthetic DNA and accelerate workflows across antibody discovery, mRNA therapeutics, cell and gene therapy, and other areas of drug discovery. We are looking for a Technical Sales Specialist who can combine scientific credibility with a strong commercial mindset to help researchers understand how Telesis Bio can accelerate the path from digital design to experimental validation.

The Role

The Technical Sales Specialist will serve as a technical commercial partner throughout the customer engagement process, working closely with Business Development to identify, qualify, develop, and advance opportunities across biotech, pharmaceutical, and life sciences organizations. This is a highly customer-facing role for someone who combines strong molecular biology expertise with commercial acumen and enjoys understanding complex scientific workflows, identifying technical requirements and bottlenecks, and translating those needs into solutions using Telesis Bio technologies and platforms.

You will engage scientists, research leaders, automation teams, and other technical decision-makers to understand how DNA moves through their workflows and help define how Gibson SOLA can enable faster, more scalable movement from digital sequence design to physical DNA and experimental validation.

What You'll Do

• Partner with Business Development to identify, qualify, develop, and advance new commercial opportunities across biotech, pharmaceutical, and life sciences accounts
• Engage scientists, research leaders, automation teams, and other technical stakeholders throughout the sales process, while supporting targeted prospecting and opportunity development
• Lead technical discovery to understand customer workflows, construct requirements, throughput and quality needs, downstream applications, and key technical bottlenecks
• Position the Gibson SOLA® platform within AI-enabled, computational, high-throughput, and automated drug discovery workflows
• Translate complex technical capabilities into clear scientific, operational, and commercial value for both scientific and business audiences
• Lead technical presentations, workflow discussions, solution demonstrations, and customer-facing technical meetings
• Partner with Business Development, Product/Marketing, Applications, and R&D to develop technically appropriate solutions, proposals, evaluations, and implementation approaches that address customer needs and drive adoption
• Help translate customer requirements into appropriate SOLA configurations, including automation, workflow integration, scalability, and implementation considerations
• Support customer evaluations, pilots/demos, benchmarking studies, and other technical activities required to advance opportunities
• Represent Telesis Bio at conferences, industry events, and customer meetings
• Maintain accurate opportunity and customer activity within the company's CRM
• Share customer feedback, competitive intelligence, and market trends with internal teams

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor's degree in molecular biology, biochemistry, biotechnology, bioengineering, or a related life sciences field; advanced degree a plus
• 5+ years of experience in a customer-facing life sciences role, such as technical sales, business development, field applications, or scientific applications
• Strong understanding of molecular biology and synthetic biology workflows, including DNA synthesis/assembly, cloning, PCR, sequencing/QC, or related workflows
• Hands-on molecular biology laboratory experience strongly preferred
• Ability to confidently engage and communicate across scientific, automation, operational, and commercial stakeholders within customer organizations
• Strong commercial mindset with the ability to apply technical expertise to advance opportunities and drive customer adoption
• Strong presentation, communication, and relationship-building skills
• Ability to quickly understand complex customer workflows and translate scientific and operational requirements into clear technical solutions and customer value
• Self-motivated, adaptable, and comfortable working in a fast-moving growth environment
• Willingness to travel up to approximately 30% for customer meetings, conferences, and industry events

We'd Especially Like to Meet You If You Have

• Experience supporting or selling life sciences research tools, instrumentation, reagents, synthetic biology technologies, or synthetic DNA solutions
• Experience with laboratory automation, high-throughput biology, liquid handling, or automated molecular biology workflows
• Experience supporting antibody discovery, biologics, mRNA, cell and gene therapy, or drug discovery workflows
• Familiarity with AI-enabled or computational drug discovery
• Experience working with biotech and pharmaceutical R&D organizations

Why Telesis Bio

AI is changing how quickly scientists can design potential therapeutics. But designing a sequence is only the beginning. Those designs still need to become physical molecules that researchers can build, test, and learn from.

At Telesis Bio, you'll help scientists close that gap – connecting increasingly powerful digital discovery tools with the physical biology required to turn promising ideas into real experiments. You'll join a small, collaborative team where your work has direct visibility and where commercial insights can influence how we position, develop, and bring our technologies to market.

Benefits / Perks

• Competitive pay
• Annual performance bonus eligibility
• Employee stock options / equity
• Medical, dental & vision insurance
• HSA-eligible health plan with employer contributions
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Generous accrued PTO
• 40 additional wellness hours annually
• 13 paid company holidays
• Monthly company-sponsored lunches
• Company happy hours, events & team activities