Senior Scientist, Discovery Biology (Immunology)

What if… you could join an organization that creates, resources, and builds life sciences companies that invent breakthrough technologies in order to transform health care and sustainability?

FL94 Inc., is a privately held, early-stage biotechnology company pioneering Protein Editing. At FL94 we create small molecules that edit protein structure and function to unlock presently undruggable targets and a broad array of novel chemistry modalities. Our platform integrates novel small molecule chemistry and chemoproteomic discovery technologies with machine learning to enable generative design of protein editing chemistries. FL94 is backed by Flagship Pioneering, bringing the courage, vision, and resources to guide FL94 from platform validation to patient impact. We are seeking collaborative, relentless problem solvers that share our passion for impact to join us! 

Position Summary:

FL94 is seeking an ambitious, creative, and talented Discovery Immunology Senior Scientist or Principal Scientist to join our research team. You will be part of the team responsible for leveraging our novel platform to develop first-in-class medicines and new chemical modalities. The ideal candidate brings expertise in disease biology and development of functional assays. A background in industrial small molecule drug discovery is a plus.

Successful candidates will be able to thrive in a fast-paced, action-oriented, team environment and display a clear passion for science and impact. The individual will have demonstrated evidence of technical expertise and experience overcoming challenges and moving projects forward with urgency.  Experience guiding junior scientists technically and strategically will be important.  They will be interested in contributing at the bench and be dedicated to scientific development of themselves and their team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Responsible for the design, planning, and execution of small molecule discovery projects in autoimmunity and inflammation.
• Reviewing targets identified by our platform for potential as therapeutic targets in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
• Develop functional assays to enable SAR, MoA studies, target engagement measurement and pathway modulation.
• Identify and/or develop appropriate cellular autoimmune and inflammatory disease models.
• Build a robust infrastructure of laboratory protocols, tools, and systems that will scale efficiently.
• Manage outsourced cell biology and in vivo biology resources, establishing and maintaining excellent working relationships with CROs and academic collaborators.
• Work collaboratively in cross-functional teams with chemistry, proteomics, drug discovery and AI/machine learning.
• Ensure rapid and accurate turnaround of data, to agreed timelines, to drive achievement of key project goals.
• Translate experimental data into meaningful insights and present the analyzed data in team meetings.
• Training and mentoring junior team members.

Qualifications:

• Ph.D. or equivalent in Immunology or related field
• More than 5 years of industrial small molecule drug discovery experience, with a track record of pre-clinical discovery and development of small molecule drugs.
• Deep understanding of the pathways deregulated in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
• Familiarity with large immunology datasets and with tools to mine those datasets.
• Hands on experience in cellular disease models to study autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
• Sound knowledge of disciplines involved in drug discovery (cell-based disease models, target engagement and target modulation assays, cell viability assays, biomarker discovery, PD/PK and efficacy studies).
• Passion for and experience working with therapeutic companies committed to integration of AI / Data Science across all layers of the business is a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to work within highly skilled teams in a fast-paced, quickly evolving technical environment.
• Competency in using data processing software (Graph Pad Prism, Spotfire, Dotmatics, etc)
• Strong organizational skills and knowledge of tools that facilitate effective organization.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, capable of conveying scientific information in a concise and effective manner.

About Flagship

Flagship Pioneering is a biotechnology company that invents and builds platform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $90 billion in aggregate value. Many of the companies Flagship has foun