Senior Scientist, Protein Engineering
$126,000–$181,500 year
On-siteCambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Job Summary
Design, engineer, and iteratively optimize novel membrane protein constructs across diverse architectures, leveraging established scaffolds or creating original designs. Troubleshoot construct expression and folding challenges while performing molecular biology and plasmid engineering at scale, including library assembly and sequence verification. Drive design-build-test cycles by running assays to characterize performance and partnering with screening teams to ensure constructs fit downstream selection. Translate experimental data into strategic insights to shape the protein-engineering function and team culture.
Required Qualifications
- PhD. in molecular biology, protein engineering, biochemistry, bioengineering, or a similar field
- 5+ years of industry or postdoctoral experience
- Deep hands-on molecular biology expertise, including construct design and the practical experience of ordering, building, and troubleshooting many constructs in parallel
- Demonstrated expertise in membrane protein construct design and engineering across diverse membrane protein architectures and topologies
- A track record of both applying established methods, scaffolds, and structures and designing, building, and testing novel constructs of your own
- Proficiency in plasmid engineering and molecular cloning, including library-scale assembly
- Hands-on experience with lentiviral transduction and mammalian cell culture
- Understanding of the secretory pathway, folding, and post-translational modifications
- A motivated team-player with strong organizational skills, leadership instincts, and written and verbal communication skills who takes initiative and drives creative scientific direction proactively
Desired Qualifications
- Proficiency with computational protein design tools (e.g., Rosetta, AlphaFold-Multimer, RFdiffusion, ProteinMPNN)
- Experience with flow cytometry panel design, execution and analysis (FlowJo)
- Experience with synthetic gene / oligo-pool vendors and codon optimization
- Experience with high-throughput screening experimental design, execution and readout analysis
- Experience with electronic lab notebooks (e.g., Benchling)
- Prior experience as an early hire in a startup
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