Senior Scientist, Protein Sciences

The role

This role will establish and lead the Protein Sciences function to enable the discovery, engineering, and validation of protein payloads, binders, and reagents. The scientist will integrate experimental protein sciences with AI-enabled design to optimize antibodies, nanobodies, and other therapeutic proteins.

What you will do

• Establish and lead the Protein Sciences function by defining scientific priorities and managing external vendors.
• Build antibody, nanobody, or other binder modalities and discovery capabilities.
• Partner with Computational biology to develop an AI-enabled protein design platform.
• Lead binder discovery projects against therapeutically relevant targets.
• Develop recombinant protein expression and purification workflows in mammalian, yeast, and bacterial systems.
• Establish biochemical, biophysical, and cell-based assays to evaluate protein properties.
• Partner with RNA biology and delivery teams to optimize RNA-encoded proteins.
• Design orthogonal assays to distinguish RNA, delivery, and protein-level drivers of performance.
• Communicate data, risks, and recommendations to multidisciplinary project teams.
• Mentor junior scientists and contribute to experimental strategy and technical direction.

Required qualifications

• PhD with 2-5 years of experience, or B.S/M.S. with 7-10 years of experience in Biochemical Engineering, Biotechnology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, or a related scientific discipline.
• Demonstrated expertise in nanobody or antibody discovery and engineering including library design, screening and production, humanization, affinity maturation, and experimental validation.
• Demonstrated expertise in high-throughput recombinant protein expression, purification, and characterization from mammalian, yeast, and bacterial systems including cell culture, chromatography-based s
• Proven track record of developing biologics as therapeutics and delivering on projects to enable programs to progress toward IND submissions.
• Experience with advanced protein characterizations methods such as LC-MS, SEC-MALS, and SPR/BLI.
• Strong understanding of ML/AI enabled protein design methodologies and the experimental validation of resulting designs.
• Strong understanding of protein structure-function relationships, sequence–function relationships, and principles governing properties related to successful drug development.
• Experience integrating yeast or phage display, high-throughput screening and computational library design.
• Experience analyzing complex experimental datasets and using quantitative approaches to guide subsequent protein engineering cycles.
• Ability to work effectively in a highly interdisciplinary environment.
• Strong track record of scientific communication, including presenting complex data and conclusions to multidisciplinary teams.
• A track record of scientific contributions through peer-reviewed publications, patents, or other evidence of technical innovation.

Nice to have

• Direct, hands-on experience in deploying ML/AI enabled protein design methods
• Experience with protein conjugation and downstream purification and characterization
• Experience with building laboratory capabilities, managing external partners, or translating research workflows into development
• Experience with RNA biology, RNA delivery, lipid nanoparticles, or related delivery technologies

Benefits

• health
• dental
• life
• open PTO
• onsite lunch catering
• commuter support
• work/life flexibility and integration

About the company

Strand Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering programmable mRNA therapeutics. Headquartered in Boston, MA, the company is advancing a pipeline with an initial focus on oncology and autoimmune disease.