Principal Scientist / Associate Director, Biochemistry

Principal Scientist / Associate Director, Biochemistry

About Treeline

Treeline Biosciences is an innovative biotechnology company, founded by an experienced team of biopharmaceutical scientists and executives, committed to developing new medicines against difficult to drug targets in cancer and other life-threatening diseases. We are pursuing a uniquely integrated approach that applies modern and emerging tools to facilitate hit finding and lead optimization to develop therapeutics for previously undrugged targets.

About the Position

We are seeking a highly motivated Biochemist (Principal Scientist through Associate Director) to join our drug discovery team in Watertown. This role will work with a focused team of biophysicists, biochemists, structural biologists, and chemists to enable early hit finding activities. The candidate will design and execute experiments to support 1-2 programs at any one time. We are seeking someone who enjoys working in the lab and is excited to work on a wide range of activities: mechanistic exploration, HTS screens, Hit finding/Lead-op assays, etc. The successful candidate will combine enzymology and biochemistry expertise with quantitative modeling, strong experimental skills in the lab, and an ability to communicate and collaborate across multi-functional teams. At the Associate Director level, this role will include setting the strategy for and managing the Biochemistry team, defining drug discovery strategies, understanding mechanisms and advancing our early drug discovery portfolio.

About the Ideal Candidate

You thrive in a fast-paced and matrixed discovery environment requiring scientific curiosity and rigor. With a drive to succeed, you are creative, diligent, and meticulous in approaching difficult scientific challenges and collaborate across multiple disciplines to move programs forward. You have an eagerness to take on responsibilities outside of your function and push the limits on how Biochemistry is used for small molecule drug discovery. For an Associate Director level role, you are an experienced manager and thrive from empowering your team and colleagues. You can effectively communicate complexities of data to your peers in lead discovery but also digest data effectively to broader audiences.

Responsibilities

• Lead and execute mechanistic investigations of drug targets using kinetic, thermodynamic, and chemical biology approaches. Characterize mechanisms of action for screening hits, tool compounds, and lead molecules.
• Build and use kinetic and mechanistic models to quantitatively predict and interpret experimental outcomes.
• Integrate mechanistic data with structural biology, medicinal chemistry, and cell-based readouts to prioritize follow-up chemistry and propose assay and compound-optimization strategies.
• Design and implement robust assays for hit finding and high throughput screening, including primary biochemical assays and downstream assays for hit triage and binning.
• Develop and maintain robust, high-quality assays and SOPs; ensure reproducibility and rigorous data analysis.
• Communicate findings clearly to colleagues and stakeholders through written reports and presentations to cross-functional project teams.
• Flexibly utilize the full breadth of your skills outside of biochemistry to support projects.
• Provide biochemistry leadership on project teams and propose and evaluate new approaches and technologies.
• Manage a team of biochemists to support portfolio activities while providing mentorship and developing your group members.

Required Qualifications

• PhD in Enzymology, Biochemistry, Biophysics, or related discipline with 7+ years of experience in biotech/pharma industry or MS with 12+ years of relevant industry experience
• Track record for biochemistry leadership and support for hit-finding, hit-to-lead, and lead optimization to delivering small molecule development candidates.
• Experience in small molecule drug discovery, specifically biochemical assay development and characterization of small molecule inhibitors and protein-ligand binding interactions.
• Training and hands on expertise in mechanistic enzymology, kinetics, binding assays, and mechanistic deconvolution with a proven track record of high impact applications to drug discovery.
• Track record of translating mechanistic insight into practical strategies for hit identification, hit triage, lead selection, SAR interpretation, or assay design.
• Experience designing and optimizing a wide array of steady-state and pre-steady-state biochemical assays, both enzymatic and binding, such as FP, TR-FRET, and bead-based.
• Direct experience in working with and targeting challenging proteins.