Principal Scientist - Enzymology

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 114,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

     

JOB DESCRIPTION:

Working at Abbott

At Abbott, you can do work that matters, grow, and learn, care for yourself and family, be your true self and live a full life. You’ll also have access to:

• Career development with an international company where you can grow the career you dream of!

• Free medical coverage for employees* via the Health Investment Plan (HIP) PPO

• An excellent retirement savings plan with high employer contribution

• Tuition reimbursement, the Freedom 2 Save student debt program and FreeU education benefit - an affordable and convenient path to getting a bachelor’s degree.

• A company recognized as a great place to work in dozens of countries around the world and named one of the most admired companies in the world by Fortune.

• A company that is recognized as one of the best big companies to work for as well as a best place to work for diversity, working mothers, female executives, and scientists.

The Opportunity

This position works out of our San Diego, CA location in the Infectious Diseases Division.

We are seeking an experienced Principal Scientist to oversee and conduct cutting-edge research in enzymology, to identify, characterize, optimize and develop proteins used for nucleic acid amplification and sample preparation technologies.  Your expertise will be crucial in advancing our understanding of enzymatic processes and developing innovative solutions. You’ll collaborate with cross-functional teams, establish protocols, and drive scientific excellence. 

Responsibilities

• Lead protein characterization, optimization and development efforts, from design of experiments through laboratory studies

• Perform kinetic, thermodynamic and structure-function studies

• Apply computational modeling to drive protein characterization and optimization efforts

• Initiate and oversee proteomics efforts in-house and via collaboration

• Provide cloning, protein expression, separation and purification expertise

• Implement mutagenesis studies to help characterize and optimize proteins of interest

• Drive the introduction of new, optimized and/or modified proteins to improve product performance

• Design and implement procedures, processes and key performance indicators to monitor, characterize and QC proteins

• Provide high level analysis of experimental results

• Provide written reports and oral presentations to executives

• Ability to work as part of a team with excellent communication skills

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree. in Biochemistry/Biophysics/Protein chemistry, or a closely related field and 10 years of experience in similar area.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ph.D.in Biochemistry/Biophysics/Protein chemistry, or a closely related field and 10 years of experience.

• Minimum ten years of full-time laboratory experience in an industrial setting

• Hands-on expertise using kinetic, thermodynamic and structure-function experimental approaches

• Expertise with computational modeling of proteins and protein/nucleic acid interactions to drive characterization of protein functionality and to drive the incorporations of protein modifications to improve/alter function  

• Extensive experience characterizing DNA/RNA interacting/binding proteins

• Expertise in optimizing protein expression and purification methods

• Expertise in developing, optimizing and performing in vitro enzymatic assays

• Experience with high-throughput genetic/molecular screening a plus

• Inventive, with ability to implement ideas in the laboratory

• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to analyze complex enzymatic processes

• Extensive hands-on experience driving the analytical, biological and functional characteriz