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BigHat Biosciences is seeking an experienced Director of Antibody Discovery to lead the company's antibody discovery and display functions. This role combines strategic leadership with hands-on scientific direction, overseeing the conception and execution of multi-year team and technology strategy while managing day-to-day operations for identification and maturation of high-quality antibodies across diverse antigen types and formats.
Key responsibilities include leading BigHat's antibody discovery and display functions with full authority over scientific, technical, and strategic direction. You will oversee routine execution of display-based selection campaigns (yeast, phage, mammalian, mRNA display) to enhance affinity, developability, and function across diverse antibody formats. You will manage and mentor a team of scientists responsible for antibody library design, generation, screening, selection, and early optimization.
You will shape and expand BigHat's antibody discovery technologies and capabilities, including new display and selection methods, library design strategies, and technical approaches that leverage the company's integrated experimental and computational platform. You will provide scientific leadership across discovery and early optimization efforts, ensuring antibodies emerging from selections possess strong functional and developability characteristics.
Cross-functional collaboration is essential: you will work closely with leaders in Protein Sciences, Data Science/Machine Learning, Engineering, and Platform groups to ensure seamless progression from discovery through characterization and optimization. You will collaborate with biology and therapeutic research leads to ensure discovery outputs align with and advance program objectives. You will foster a collaborative and high-performance culture within the discovery organization.
Required qualifications include a Ph.D. in molecular biology, biochemistry, protein engineering, or related discipline with 10+ years of experience in antibody discovery and engineering within academia, biotechnology, or pharmaceutical industries. You must have 5+ years of managerial experience leading scientific teams. Strong expertise with protein display systems is essential, along with demonstrated experience in antibody library design, construction, screening, and selection analysis. You should have deep understanding of antibody structure-function relationships and mechanisms of antigen recognition, and experience integrating antibody discovery workflows with downstream characterization and developability assessment. Familiarity with computational or ML-enabled approaches to protein design and optimization is valued. Experience advancing biologics from early discovery through lead optimization stages and knowledge of diverse antibody modalities (multispecific antibodies, antibody fragments, advanced formats) are important. Excellent leadership, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills are required. Must be willing to work onsite 5 days per week.
