Farid studied chemistry at Leiden University and in 2005 received his PhD in organic chemistry in the lab of the late Prof. Jacques van Boom (Leiden University), specializing in the synthesis of peptidomimetics and carbohydrate building blocks. For the next three years, he performed postdoctoral research at Oxford University: first (as Marie-Curie Fellow) in the lab of Prof. Ben G. Davis (Department of Chemistry); next in the lab of Dr Benedikt Kessler (ubiquitin biology, Department of Clinical Medicine). In 2008 he joined the group of Huib Ovaa at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, where he focused on developing chemical technologies for advancing research in the Ubiquitin Proteasome System. In 2010 he co-founded UbiQ as a spin-off of the Netherlands Cancer Institute. Here he is responsible for development of new research tools and building a drug discovery pipeline in the rapidly expanding Ubiquitin Proteasome System. Since January of 2019 he has also joined the lab of Prof Titia Sixma at The Netherlands Cancer Institute as senior postdoctoral fellow.