Senior Scientist – Trace Health Trace Health | Bangalore, India

Job Description

Senior Scientist – Trace Health Trace Health | Bangalore, India | In-person

Trace Health is hiring its first senior scientist to build and run our Bangalore wet lab, owning assay R&D from the bench to commercialization. About Trace Health Trace Health is an early-stage medtech startup building devices for the toilet to passively measure biomarkers (starting with hormones) from urine using biosensors. We’re validating our assay against gold-standard methods and building toward a pilot study with a major sports team. About the Role We are looking for a PhD-level scientist (PhD or postdoc) to lead Trace Health’s lab in Bangalore. You will be the senior scientific presence in India: you set up the lab, lead the sensor R&D program, and manage a small team of researchers and interns. You will work directly with the co-founders and have real say over the technical direction. This is a build-it-from-scratch role, not a “join an established bench” role. What You’ll Do Build the lab: select, install, and validate core equipment, establish SOPs and safety practices, manage vendors and procurement, and get the space running reproducibly Lead sensor and assay R&D: from biomarker identification, to biosensor development, to realworld characterization/implementation Design and run experiments: plan studies in real-world matrices and human subjects Support validation: work with the co-founders on concordance against gold-standard methods and on the data package for the pilot study Lead the team: hire, train, and manage junior researchers and interns, set weekly priorities, and review their data Document rigorously: build the lab notebook, data management, and QC practices that will support later regulatory and IP work, and contribute to patents and publications Be a technical voice for the company: brief the co-founders, advisors, and partners on progress and risks, and help recruit the next scientific hires Who You Are PhD (or a postdoc, or a PhD near completion) in Biomedical Engineering, Analytical or Physical Chemistry, Biochemistry, Chemical Engineering, or a related field Masterʼs students will be considered with requisite experience 1 Senior Scientist – Trace HealthDeep hands-on experience in electrochemistry, biosensing, or both A track record of getting a biosensor or assay to work reliably: you have troubleshot noisy, drifting, or irreproducible data and know how to find the cause Experience supervising or mentoring students or junior researchers Comfortable with ambiguity and resource constraints: you are happy to make decisions with incomplete information, buy the right instrument rather than the fanciest one, and build SOPs from nothing Careful with data: you keep clean notebooks, use sound statistics, and write things down so others can reproduce them Able to work in person in Bangalore. We are incubated at C-CAMP (next to NCBS/GKVK). Target start: December 1, 2026 Nice to Have Prior work on electrochemical and/or DNA sensors Experience with sensor stability, storage, and reproducibility in complex biological fluids Experience setting up or running a lab, or working in a startup or resource-constrained setting Familiarity with assay validation, analytical method development, or LC-MS/MS comparison studies Publications or patents in biosensors or electrochemistry Logistics Location: Bangalore, in person (C-CAMP) Role: Senior Scientist, reporting to the co-founders Compensation: commensurate with experience Team: you will help hire and manage the lab’s junior researchers and interns How to Apply Send an email to Harshit Chellani at harshit@wetracehealth.com with your CV, a short note on why you are a fit, and a summary of your most relevant work: the system you built, your role, the outcomes, and what you learned. Links to publications or patents are welcome