Senior Scientist, Biologics Optimization

At Johnson & Johnson, we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions are personal. Through our expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, we are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity. Learn more at jnj.com.

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Job Function:

Discovery & Pre-Clinical/Clinical Development

Job Sub Function:

Biotherapeutics R&D

Job Category:

Scientific/Technology

All Job Posting Locations:

Spring House, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Job Description:

About Innovative Medicine

Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow.

Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way.

Learn more at https://www.jnj.com/innovative-medicine

We are searching for the best talent for Senior Scientist, Biologics Optimization in Spring House, PA

Purpose: The Biologics Optimization team within Biologics Discovery is responsible for the design and optimization of lead biologic variants across multiple therapeutic modalities to achieve differentiated functional outcomes aligned with desired therapeutic mechanism of action (MoA). In this position, the Senior Scientist will serve as key driver in dissecting engineering strategies that translate molecular design into improved biological function and optimized binders across diverse therapeutic modalities.  The Senior Scientist will be an integral member of the Biologics Optimization team that works on the cutting edge of protein science and technologies to deliver fit-for-purpose optimized protein sequences supporting the therapeutic pipeline.

This role requires experience in antibody and protein engineering, display-based technologies and mechanism-driven biologics discovery. The successful candidate will partner closely with Therapeutic Area scientists, computational scientists, protein engineers, and drug discovery teams to develop and implement optimization strategies that enhance potency, selectivity, efficacy, and define overall therapeutic mechanism of action and performance. 

The Senior Scientist will be expected to establish and champion scientific best practices in function-driven optimization, leveraging detailed understanding of antibody structure-function relationships, protein sequence space, and biological pathways to guide engineering decisions. In this role, the Senior Scientist will help shape portfolio-wide platforms and therapeutic programs by advancing future optimization capabilities, developing enabling technologies, and collaborating across functional groups to drive the discovery and molecular engineering of differentiated biotherapeutics. The Senior Scientist will have the opportunity to participate on and grow into leadership roles for discovery project teams and interact seamlessly with world-class Therapeutic Area scientists.

You will be responsible for:

• Lead biologics optimization efforts across multiple therapeutic programs, translating target biology and desired mechanisms of action into rational protein engineering strategies. 
• Serve as a subject matter lead in function-driven optimization: champion novel development efforts aimed at fulfilling strategic long-term antibody design/optimization initiatives and validation.
• Develop optimization strategies that integrate antibody sequence, structure, developability, and biological function to achieve program objectives. 
• Participate on project teams to advance discovery portfolio projects.  Act as a point of accountability for optimization engineering asks and manage project timelines independently.