Lilasciences

Lilasciences

Senior Principal Scientist, Small Molecule Therapeutics

Cambridge, MA USA · Principal

Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 2 days ago
Machine LearningVendor ManagementRecruitingMolecular BiologyExperimental DesignMass SpectrometryProtein AnalysisLeadershipCommunicationCollaboration

About the role

  • We believe science is the most inspiring frontier for AI.
  • Guided by our core values of truth, trust, curiosity, grit, and velocity, we move with startup speed while tackling problems of historic importance.
  • If this sounds like an environment you'd love to work in, even if you don't meet every qualification listed above, we encourage you to apply.

Responsibilities

  • Lead the protein science strategy for small molecule programs, ensuring timely delivery of high-quality protein reagents for screening, assay development, biophysics, crystallography, Cryo-EM, and downstream validation.
  • Lead construct design and protein engineering efforts to enable soluble, stable, active, and structurally tractable protein reagents across diverse target classes.
  • Design construct strategies including domain boundaries, truncations, tags, mutations, fusion partners, stabilizing variants, ortholog selection, and expression system selection.
  • Partner with assay biology, screening, chemistry, computational chemistry, and translational teams to ensure protein reagents are fit-for-purpose for biochemical, biophysical, cellular, and structural applications.
  • Manage external Cryo-EM activities where appropriate, including feasibility assessment, sample preparation strategy, vendor coordination, and interpretation of structural results.
  • Troubleshoot protein production, purification, stability, and structural biology challenges in collaboration with internal teams and external partners.
  • Build scalable processes for managing external protein science and structural biology work, including statements of work, decision criteria, data packages, documentation, and knowledge transfer.
  • Mentor and develop future team members as internal protein science capabilities expand.
  • Maintain awareness of emerging technologies, vendors, platforms, and best practices in recombinant protein production, structural biology, and structure-enabled drug discovery.
  • Experience managing external CROs or partners for protein production, purification, crystallography, or related structural biology activities.

Requirements

  • Hands-on and strategic experience with protein purification workflows, including affinity, ion exchange, size-exclusion, analytical characterization, and stability optimization.
  • Strong understanding of X-ray crystallography workflows, including construct design, protein-ligand complex preparation, crystallization, data collection, structure determination, and structure interpretation.
  • Experience with challenging drug discovery target classes, such as membrane proteins, multiprotein complexes, intrinsically disordered proteins, protein-protein interaction targets, kinases, GPCRs, and ion channels.

Visa & Work Authorization

  • al employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status
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