Associate Director, Antibody Engineering

$160,000 - $195,000/Yr

AlivaMab Discovery Services - San Diego, CA

Full-time - Senior

San Diego, CA

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

About the position

AlivaMab Biologics is seeking an outstanding Associate Director of Antibody Engineering to lead our Antibody Engineering and Molecular Biology Team. This position will head a team of scientists responsible for designing, generating, and characterizing antibody-based therapeutics, including multispecifics and other advanced modalities. The Associate Director will report to the Vice President of Antibody Discovery and work closely with scientists and leaders in the Antibody Discovery, Protein Sciences, and Project Management teams. The position requires the candidate to lead antibody engineering through display technology, rational design and combinatorial approaches, and computational engineering. This role also requires the ability to contribute to the expansion of antibody engineering capabilities and new technologies for antibody drug discovery.

Responsibilities

• Lead an antibody engineering and molecular biology team of scientists responsible for designing, generating, and characterizing antibody-based therapeutics, including advanced modalities such as multispecific, common light chain, single-domain human VH antibodies.
• Contribute to developing a robust phage-based immune repertoire display platform for forced common light chain and single domain human VH antibody discovery and optimization.
• Design, lead, and execute engineering campaigns to deliver cutting-edge, developable biologics formats by applying a variety of techniques including molecular biology, phage display, combinatorial, structure-guided, and computational approaches.
• Lead technology development in antibody engineering and molecular biology.
• Develop and employ complex molecular biology workflows to rapidly generate constructs from various in silico and biological sources.
• Interact and collaborate with leaders and teams across antibody discovery, protein sciences, and project management on project delivery and new technology development.
• Generate precise technical summaries and maintain proper documentation for partner-facing external presentations.
• Provide growth opportunities and career development support for staff. Carry out performance management/reviews for staff.

Requirements

• PhD in a relevant scientific area, such as antibody or protein engineering, protein biochemistry or biotechnology, plus a minimum of 8 years of professional experience in biologics research.
• Deep understanding of diverse biologics formats, including multispecific antibodies, single-domain antibodies, ADCs, and other modalities.
• Hands-on experience with antibody phage display platforms is required.
• Experience with protein engineering to improve developability and affinity modulation is preferred.
• Understanding NGS-based repertoire analysis is highly desired.
• A background in structure-based antibody design and engineering is desired.
• Excellent communicator and highly effective in interacting with key internal and external stakeholders.
• Team player and builder, possess great coaching skills, and have great organizational skills.
• High degree of professionalism and dedication to exceptional quality and integrity.

Benefits

• Equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment.