Scientist II, Antibody Discovery (Phage Display)

The role

You will run phage display antibody discovery campaigns end-to-end within the Display Technologies group. You will design selection strategies for hard targets and turn your campaigns into high-quality datasets that train antibody design models.

What you will do

• Independently design, execute, and own phage display campaigns from library through panning and hit validation.
• Develop and optimize selection strategies for challenging targets, including QC and effective use of antigens across formats.
• Develop and apply library-scale approaches to measuring binder properties, and help adapt assays to higher-throughput, automated formats.
• Partner with computational and ML colleagues to generate, structure, and QC data at scale for model training.
• Mentor associate scientists and contribute to technical standards within the group.

Required qualifications

• PhD in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Immunology, Protein Engineering, or related field.
• 2 to 4 years of relevant industry experience.
• Significant hands-on expertise in antibody or protein discovery by phage display, including library design, panning/selection, and hit validation.
• Hands-on flow cytometry (FACS) experience, including data interpretation and gating strategy.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with meticulous attention to detail and rigorous documentation.
• Strong written and verbal communication; able to present complex science to technical and non-technical audiences.

Nice to have

• Strong molecular biology and library construction skills (cloning, mutagenesis, assembly).
• Experience with membrane-protein targets (e.g., GPCRs) in cell-based or recombinant formats.
• Label-free affinity characterization (SPR, BLI/Octet).
• Alternative display formats (yeast, mammalian, ribosome/mRNA).
• Lab automation (Hamilton, Tecan, or similar) and/or scripting for large-dataset analysis (Python, R).
• Mammalian cell culture.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation and benefits package.
• Base salary, bonus, and equity.
• Open, flexible, and friendly work environment.
• Platform to develop long-term careers.
• Summary of Benefits available to all applicants.

Before you apply

• Xaira Therapeutics does not accept agency resumes.

About the company

Xaira is an AI-focused biotech startup developing generative AI models to design protein and antibody therapeutics and foundation models for biology and disease. It is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and London.