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Salary: USD 132,000 - 142,000 / annual
Strand Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering programmable mRNA therapeutics, is seeking a Senior Scientist in Protein Sciences to establish and lead protein science capabilities within the Platform Enabling Technologies team. The company has raised over $250 million and is advancing a pipeline focused on oncology and autoimmune disease, with programs including STX-001 (in clinical trials) and STX-003 (expected to enter clinic mid-2026).
Reporting to the Associate Director of Platform Enabling Technologies, you will be a founding member of this function, combining deep expertise in protein engineering with AI-enabled design to discover and optimize antibodies, nanobodies, and therapeutic proteins for RNA-encoded delivery. This is a hands-on role that integrates experimental protein sciences with computational approaches.
Key responsibilities include:
- Establishing the Protein Sciences function by defining scientific priorities, managing external vendors, selecting instrumentation, and building workflows for binder discovery, protein engineering, production, and characterization
- Building antibody, nanobody, and other binder discovery capabilities integrating computational modeling, library design, display-based screening, and validation
- Partnering with computational biology to develop an AI-enabled protein design platform by defining design criteria, generating training datasets, and testing model-generated candidates
- Leading binder discovery projects against therapeutically relevant targets
- Developing recombinant protein expression and purification workflows in mammalian, yeast, and bacterial systems
- Establishing biochemical, biophysical, and cell-based assays to evaluate binding kinetics, specificity, stability, aggregation, activity, and developability
- Optimizing RNA-encoded proteins for translation efficiency, folding, intracellular trafficking, secretion, functional activity, and delivery compatibility
- Designing orthogonal assays to distinguish RNA, delivery, and protein-level drivers of performance
- Communicating data, risks, and recommendations to multidisciplinary project teams and contributing to portfolio strategy
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 related discipline
- Demonstrated expertise in nanobody or antibody discovery and engineering including library design, screening, 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, and affinity/developability assays
- Proven track record of developing biologics as therapeutics and delivering on projects to enable IND submissions
- Experience with advanced protein characterization methods such as LC-MS, SEC-MALS, and SPR/BLI
- Strong understanding of ML/AI-enabled protein design methodologies and experimental validation; direct hands-on experience preferred
- Strong understanding of protein structure-function relationships, sequence-function relationships, and principles governing successful drug development including stability, activity, specificity, immunogenicity, and developability
- Experience integrating yeast or phage display, high-throughput screening, and computational library design
- Experience analyzing complex experimental datasets and using quantitative approaches to guide protein engineering cycles
- Experience with protein conjugation and downstream purification/characterization (preferred but not required)
- Experience building laboratory capabilities, managing external partners, or translating research workflows into development (preferred but not required)
- Experience with RNA biology, RNA delivery, lipid nanoparticles, or related delivery technologies (strong plus but not required for exceptional protein engineering expertise)
- Ability to work effectively in highly interdisciplinary environment and collaborate across RNA biology, LNP formulation, cell biology, computational biology, and analytical sciences
- Strong track record of scientific communication and presenting complex data to multidisciplinary teams
- Experience mentoring junior scientists and contributing to experimental strategy and technical direction
- Track record of scientific contributions through peer-reviewed publications, patents, or evidence of technical innovation
