What are the responsibilities and job description for the Corporate Strategy Intern position at Portal?
Corporate Strategy Intern
Reporting: Julie Kim, Chief of Staff to the CEO
Timing: Flexible; immediate start preferred, with the potential to extend through fall 2026 and beyond
Hours: Full-time and part-time considered; we will work around academic schedules
Location: New York City, Bay Area or Boston preferred
Compensation: Paid, commensurate with experience and hours
Company Overview
Portal Biotechnologies, headquartered in Watertown, MA, is a cell engineering platform company building the infrastructure layer for programmable cell medicine. Portal's proprietary mechanoporation technology enables efficient, scalable delivery of diverse cargos into virtually any cell type without compromising cell function, supporting applications from high-throughput drug screening to clinical-scale manufacturing.
Since launching its first product in 2024, Portal has built a network of 100 active customers including the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies and leading academic hospitals and cancer centers worldwide. The company is backed by leading venture investors and an $8M DARPA contract, and is at an inflection point across its commercial, scientific, and operational work streams.
The Role
Portal's Chief of Staff is looking for a sharp, self-directed intern to work directly with her and the CEO across research, strategy, and operational projects. The work is real: outputs get used in board meetings, investor conversations, and government contract deliverables. You will have direct exposure to how a DARPA-backed biotech company makes decisions at the leadership level. We are looking for someone who wants to stay. A summer engagement that continues into the fall, or longer, is strongly preferred.
What You Will Do
- Research and analysis across commercial and operational topics, synthesized into clear memos, slide decks, or briefings
- Contributing to board materials, investor-facing packages, and executive communications
- Building and maintaining dashboards, trackers, and reporting infrastructure
- Supporting federal grant and contract management, including DARPA and ARPA-H programs
- Cross-functional special projects at the direction of the CoS and CEO
Who You Are
- Pursuing or recently completed a degree in a quantitative, scientific, or business field; life sciences, economics, engineering, and MBA programs are all relevant backgrounds
- Strong analytical skills and comfort working with data, whether that means building a model, structuring a competitive analysis, or designing a tracker
- Clear writer who can translate complex information into something a non-expert can act on
- Organized and dependable; when you own something, it gets done
- Curious about biotech, deep tech, or early-stage company building; you do not need a lab background but you should care about what Portal is building
- Comfortable with ambiguity and operating without a detailed playbook
Why Portal
The Chief of Staff came up through life sciences strategy consulting and healthcare venture capital before her MBA and joining Portal. This role is structured to give substantive exposure to the full range of work at an early-stage biotech platform company: commercial strategy, fundraising, government contracts, scientific programs, and operations.
The CEO, Armon Sharei, previously founded SQZ Biotechnologies, raising over $300M, establishing a $1B collaboration with Roche, and taking the company public on the NYSE. He built SQZ on the same intracellular delivery technology he developed during his doctoral research at MIT. The intern will have exposure to how he thinks and operates. For someone interested in biotech, VC, or startup operating roles, this is the kind of exposure that is hard to find at an early stage.
To apply or express interest, contact julie@portal.bio with your resume.