Scientist

Do you have a passion for Science? Would you like to apply your expertise to impact a company that follows the science and turns ideas into life changing medicines? Then AstraZeneca might be the one for you! 

At AstraZeneca, we put patients first and strive to meet their unmet needs worldwide. Working here means being entrepreneurial, thinking big and working together to make the impossible a reality. If you are swift to action, confident to lead, willing to collaborate, and curious about what science can do, then you’re our kind of person. 

About AstraZeneca in Gaithersburg, MD: 

Our Gaithersburg, Maryland facility creates life-changing medicines for people around the world. This campus employs more than 3,500 experts in our field and is only a short drive from Washington, DC. This modern and vibrant scientific campus is the home of R&D and Oncology in the US. Here, we play host to some of the most cutting-edge technology and lab spaces, all designed to inspire collaboration and cross-functional science. We believe employees benefit from being challenged and inspired at work. We are dedicated to creating a culture of inclusion and collaboration. 

The Gaithersburg site offers a variety of amenities to help boost productivity and help keep our employees stay happy and healthy. This includes a fitness center, employee healthcare clinic, electric vehicle charging stations, dry cleaning, full-service cafeteria and copy center. This is where you’ll find newly-designed, activity-based work spaces to suit a variety of working styles while increasing collaboration between teams. 

Summary of the Group 

Biologics Engineering (BE) is responsible for the discovery and optimization of next generation biologics to create biological drug candidates for all key therapeutic areas such as oncology, respiratory and inflammation, cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases. We're constantly pushing the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines to patients, with a passion for the development of in-house biologics discovery platforms and novel drug modalities to address unmet medical needs. 

Main Duties & Responsibilities 

We are seeking a skilled and highly motivated Scientist to enhance our High Throughput Production & Screening (HTPS) capabilities of biologics. The successful candidate will play a critical role in a dynamic group responsible for high-throughput cloning, expression & purification of antibody therapeutics on a microgram-to-milligram scale and be an advocate for utilizing various automation platforms. The selected individual will be a well-organized and a highly productive scientist that can design and execute experiments efficiently, as well as analyze, interpret and present data to multidisciplinary project teams 

• Collaborate and work with a diverse group of scientists across all therapeutic areas to ensure timely progress in research projects. 

• Execute high-throughput cloning, production and purification of protein therapeutics from mammalian expression systems using process automation and liquid handling robotics. 

• Collaborate with automation engineers to integrate liquid handling robotics and high-throughput analytics into production pipelines. 

• Biochemical, biophysical and functional profiling of antibodies and recombinant antibody fragments.   

• Ability to solve process development problems and implement improved procedures. 

Education & Experience Requirements  

• Master's degree with hands-on experience in antibody engineering, cloning and expression, or protein characterization (e.g., UPLC, mass spectrometry) +1 YOE 

• Bachelor's degree with 4+ years of relevant industry or academic research experience 

Required Skills 

• Expertise in protein purification techniques and in vitro analytical methods for protein characterization, including SEC, SDS-PAGE, HPLC, ELISA, and BLI. 

• Proven experience in the expression, purification, and comprehensive biochemical/biophysical characterization of various antibody formats (e.g., IgG, Fab, scFv, bispecifics). 

• Knowledge in optimizing and troubleshooting automation techniques, with hands-on experience designing automated workflows.  

• Ability to follow well established SOP’s, effectively plan and organize work activities and prioritize task completion to meet project deadlines.  

 Desired Skills 

• Experience in tissue culture teftherchniques and protein characterization assays. 

• Experience working with multiple antibody formats, troubleshoot common downstream challenges such as low recovery, aggregation and purities. 

• Automation experience with liquid handlers, Green button Go and other platforms a plus. 

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills as well as the ability to work within teams. 

• Good written and verbal communication skills and effective presentation of complex scientific data to cross-functional and senior management.