Senior Scientist, Biologics Optimization

At Johnson & Johnson, we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions are personal. Through our expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, we are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity.

About Innovative Medicine

Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow. Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way.

Responsibilities

• Lead biologics optimization efforts across multiple therapeutic programs, translating target biology and desired mechanisms of action into rational protein engineering strategies.
• Serve as a subject matter lead in function-driven optimization: champion novel development efforts aimed at fulfilling strategic long-term antibody design/optimization initiatives and validation.
• Develop optimization strategies that integrate antibody sequence, structure, developability, and biological function to achieve program objectives.
• Participate on project teams to advance discovery portfolio projects. Act as a point of accountability for optimization engineering asks and manage project timelines independently.
• Partner with teams across TD/TA to define critical functional hypotheses and establish screening cascades that enable MoA-driven decision making.
• Apply computational, AI/ML, and data-driven approaches to guide variant design, library construction, sequence prioritization, and hit selection.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and develop innovative approaches to accelerate biologics optimization workflows and therapeutic discovery.
• Independently present/defend scientific findings in multi-functional project teams/initiatives.
• Independently plan, analyze and interpret experimental results and draft patent applications, manuscripts, protocols, SOPs, technical reports, etc.

Requirements

• A minimum of a MS Degree in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Biomedical Engineering, structural biology or related field is required. PhD is highly preferred.
• A minimum of 1 year of relevant industry experience in biologics discovery, protein engineering, or therapeutic optimization is required.
• Experience in antibody and protein engineering with a demonstrated ability to advance therapeutic molecules through optimization cycles.
• Understanding of antibody structure-function relationships, including variable region architecture, framework and CDR design, sequence liabilities, affinity maturation, specificity engineering, and developability considerations.
• Hands-on experience with cell-based functional assays across oncology or immunology areas (e.g. T-cell redirection, immune modulation).
• Hands-on experience with display-based technologies for protein engineering and optimization, with preference for yeast display and/or mammalian display platforms.
• Strong understanding of therapeutic biology and demonstrated experience applying biological insights to address function-driven engineering challenges.
• Proven ability to evaluate therapeutic mechanisms of action and design optimization strategies that improve biological activity, efficacy, selectivity, or target engagement.
• Zeal for addressing complex scientific questions and solving novel challenges with creativity and a collaborative spirit.
• Demonstration of successful implementation of new ideas with calculated risk taking.
• Abilities to lead by influence and communicate across teams with diverse backgrounds is required.
• Demonstration of clear, concise, and timely communication skills, exemplified by peer-reviewed publications is required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Candidates with a Master’s degree: 3 years of industry experience is preferred.
• Candidates with a PhD: 1 year of industry experience is preferred.
• Experience in protein structure modeling and visualization tools such as Schrödinger, MOE, PyMOL, Chimera, or AlphaFold-based workflows.
• Hands-on experience with high-throughput binding assays and screening technologies, including ELISA, SPR, MSD, flow cytometry, or related platforms.
• Understanding of mammalian protein expression systems, including transient expression and recombinant protein production workflows.
• Demonstrated ability to establish new scientific capabilities.

Location: Spring House, Pennsylvania, United States of America