Senior Scientist, Protein Sciences

Job Description

Our company is a global health care leader with a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines and animal health products. The difference between potential and achievement lies in the spark that fuels innovation and inventiveness; this is the space where our company has codified its legacy for over a century.

Our company's success is backed by ethical integrity, forward momentum, and an inspiring mission to achieve new milestones in global healthcare. We are on a quest for cures and are committed to be the world’s premier, most research-intensive biopharmaceutical company. Today, we’re doubling down on this goal to take our company's leading discovery capabilities and world-class small molecule and biologics R&D expertise to create breakthrough science that radically changes the way we approach serious diseases.

Our Research and Development Division in San Diego is a cross-functional team (Discovery Biologics, Immunology, and Data Science) with the goal to discover and develop novel, innovative therapeutics in the field of Inflammation and Immunology. The Discovery Biologics Department is seeking a Senior Scientist to drive biologics discovery, protein production, purification, engineering, and characterization.  The role is a key interface with Immunology and other drug discovery and development scientists and functions across our company as well as with external academic and industrial partners. 

The successful candidate will design and carry out experiments in the lab to build and support projects in the early discovery pipeline, with focus on antibodies, bispecific molecules, and evaluation of novel biologic platforms. An ability to communicate clearly and collaborate effectively with colleagues in the discovery group as well as scientists from different disciplines.

We recognize that the diversity in our team is our strength and are dedicated to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Successful candidates should demonstrate inclusive behaviors in working with a diverse group of scientists to drive our core mission.

Key Responsibilities:

• Perform and manage the purification, characterization and early developability assessment of monoclonal antibodies and other biologics modalities to support candidate selection and pre-clinical development of therapeutic programs.
• Lead analytical characterization of reagents and engineered constructs.
• Contribute scientifically to drug discovery research programs; present and communicate strategies, concepts and results to multidisciplinary drug discovery teams.
• Collaborate with adjacent discovery departments to develop and integrate enabling technology
• Ensure that data generated is communicated in a concise, easy to understand manner to the appropriate teams and stakeholders
• Serve as Protein Characterization representative in project teams to advance programs from early discovery to start of IND-enabling studies.
• Lead and mentor scientists; facilitating their contributions to the team, the company and career development.  Contribute to a culture that values continuous learning and development. 
• Work productively with external academic, biotechnology, and contract research organizations
• Stay abreast of latest scientific and competitive developments around therapeutic platform choice/s and experimental methods, including solubility, aggregation, glycan- and charge-variant analysis, stress testing and peptide mapping of antibodies

Position Qualifications:

Education Minimum Requirement:

• Bachelor’s (with 7 years), Master’s (with 4 years) or Ph.D. in molecular biology, biochemistry, cellular biology or related discipline with relevant laboratory experience described below

Required Experience and Skills:

• Demonstrated experience in a broad range of activities for antibody purification, including chromatographic techniques: affinity, Protein A, ion-exchange, hydrophobic and size-exclusion chromatography
• Expertise in protein biochemical and biophysical characterization, including:
  • Ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography (UPLC) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) size-exclusion chromatography, ion-exchange, reversed- phase, hydrophobic interaction chromatography (aSEC, IE, RP, HIC)
  • Gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and Western blot
  • Capillary electrophoresis (CE) and isoelectric focusing (cIEF)
  • Viscosity
  • Stability assessments 

• Understanding of developability assessments addressing solubility, stability, immunogenicity, structural dynamic