Principal Scientist / Associate Director, Developability & Protein Sciences

Cartography Biosciences•South San Francisco, CA

7h•$175,000 - $190,000•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking a Principal Scientist or Associate Director to lead developability and protein sciences for bispecific and multispecific antibody programs, including T-cell engagers. The role owns biophysical and developability screening that informs lead selection, as well as the expression and purification needed to supply that work, both in house and through external partners. The position manages and grows a small team of scientists and contributes as a leading member of cross-functional therapeutic program teams. This is a hands-on hybrid role based onsite in South San Francisco, with approximately half of the time spent at the bench alongside the team. The role turns developability data into program decisions in collaboration with Antibody Engineering, Pharmacology, and program leadership. Its scope is expected to grow with the team and pipeline.

Requirements

PhD in protein science, biochemistry, biophysics, chemical or biological engineering, or a related discipline, with 5+ years of biopharmaceutical industry experience for Principal Scientist or 8+ years for Associate Director; alternatively, an MS with commensurate additional directly relevant experience.
Hands-on experience with bispecific or multispecific antibodies, such as knob-into-hole, common light chain, or VHH/single-domain fusions, including analysis of product-related species.
Hands-on expertise with biophysical and developability methods such as DSF or DSC, analytical SEC, IEX, HIC, CE-SDS, intact mass, self-association assays such as AC-SINS, and polyspecificity assays such as BVP ELISA or PSR.
Experience with developability triage in a research or discovery setting and translating biophysical data into candidate-selection decisions.
Experience with mammalian transient expression and multi-step antibody purification on FPLC systems such as AKTA or equivalent, including Protein A capture and polishing by IEX, HIC, or mixed-mode chromatography.
Experience serving as the protein sciences or developability expert on cross-functional therapeutic project teams, including presenting data that shaped candidate selection or advancement decisions.
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams without direct authority, including setting priorities, running team meetings, and driving decisions to closure.
Experience managing or mentoring scientists.
Hands-on experience writing code to analyze data or automate laboratory workflows, such as Python or R, including use of AI coding assistants such as Claude Code.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading or co-leading a cross-functional therapeutic program team, or serving as deputy to a program lead.
Experience using in silico tools to predict antibody developability and biophysical properties.
Experience with PTM characterization by peptide mapping LC-MS and with stress and forced degradation studies.
Formulation development experience, particularly high-concentration formulations greater than 100 mg/mL for subcutaneous dosing.
Experience with liquid-handling automation and high-throughput purification and characterization.
Experience managing outsourced protein production or characterization.
Knowledge of T-cell engaging antibody platforms and a background in oncology or immuno-oncology.
Experience building data pipelines, analysis tools, or agentic workflows with AI coding tools.

Responsibilities

Deliver developability and biophysical data as therapeutic candidates advance from hit screening through lead optimization to development candidate nomination.
Own the developability screening cascade, including thermal stability, aggregation, self-association, charge variants, hydrophobicity, polyspecificity, and molecular integrity assessments.
Integrate in silico biophysical property assessments with experimental data to prioritize and engineer candidates.
Characterize advanced leads and development candidates through stress and forced degradation studies, PTM mapping, and early formulation development.
Define and own developability criteria at program decision gates and apply them consistently across programs.
Expand the throughput, robustness, and technical scope of protein analytics capabilities to support AI/ML-driven antibody engineering.
Oversee research-stage protein production from 1 mL to 10 L scale, in house and through external partners, with clear intake, prioritization, turnaround, and quality acceptance practices.
Optimize transient production of multi-chain bispecific and multispecific assemblies, including plasmid chain-ratio tuning to maximize correctly assembled product.
Direct purification strategies to separate product-related species from correctly paired heterodimers, using Protein A capture and appropriate polishing methods.
Scale plate-based expression and purification in house and through external partners to support screening throughput for the AI/ML-driven antibody engineering platform.
Deliver low-endotoxin, high-monomer material that meets in vivo dosing specifications for mouse pharmacology and non-GLP NHP studies.
Lead Protein Sciences work on cross-functional therapeutic program teams, incorporating developability and manufacturability risks into design and advancement decisions and driving those decisions to closure.
As the portfolio grows, potentially lead cross-functional program teams and align Antibody Engineering, Pharmacology, and Computational Biology on goals, timelines, and gate decisions.
Communicate data, risks, and recommendations clearly to program teams and leadership and build alignment on subsequent decisions.
Manage, mentor, and develop scientists in protein purification and analytics, and set the function's day-to-day practices and priorities.
Build data capture, analysis, and automation into team workflows in collaboration with colleagues developing internal software and AI tools.