Principal Scientist

Bristol Myers Squibb • San Diego, CA

1d • Onsite

About The Position

At Bristol Myers Squibb, our purpose-driven culture inspires us to discover, develop, and deliver innovative medicines to prevail over serious diseases. We offer uniquely interesting and meaningful work, opportunities for growth, and a supportive environment that values inclusion, wellbeing, flexibility, and comprehensive benefits. This is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it. We are seeking an accomplished Principal Scientist to advance antibody engineering initiatives within the Therapeutic Discovery Sciences Department on the Protein Engineering Team in San Diego, California. This is a laboratory-based position intended for a senior individual contributor who will be responsible for designing, executing, and interpreting experiments that inform early-stage research and contribute to the advancement of platform technologies. The successful candidate will also be responsible for developing new tools and reimagining existing technologies to support the creation of next-generation recombinant antibody therapeutics. In this role, the individual will serve as the antibody engineering lead on discovery project teams, establishing technical direction and strategy for engineering initiatives from conceptualization through lead nomination. The position requires close collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of scientists, with whom platform knowledge, instrumentation, and technical expertise are shared. The individual will also engage regularly with colleagues in antigen design, structural biology, and computational biology. Success in this role is driven by technical expertise, sound scientific judgment, and the integrity and credibility of one's experimental work. The ideal candidate will demonstrate strong bench leadership, exercise initiative independently, and perform effectively within a fast-paced, collaborative, and highly matrixed organizational environment.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree with 8+ years of academic / industry experience OR Master's Degree with 6+ years of academic / industry experience OR PhD with 4+ years of academic / industry experience.
• PhD in protein science, structural biology, biochemistry, or related scientific discipline.
• Hands-on expertise in antibody engineering, including design, expression, purification, and characterization of bispecific and multispecific formats.
• Direct experience with SPR/BLI, ELISA, flow cytometry, and other protein interaction and functional assays.
• Proven ability to design, plan, and execute experiments and troubleshoot complex problems independently, with the expectation of spending the majority of your time at the bench.
• Experience providing scientific leadership and influencing project decisions through technical expertise.
• Demonstrated impact through publications, patents, or advancement of therapeutic discovery programs.
• Strong collaborator with experience working across multiple programs, functions, and sites in a matrix environment.
• Excellent organizational, documentation, presentation, written, and verbal communication skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with advanced antibody-based formats such as antibody-drug conjugates or multispecific-related approaches.
• 2+ years of biotech or pharmaceutical experience.
• Familiarity with antibody sequence analysis, bioinformatics, physics-based protein modeling, AI/ML-enabled discovery tools, or developability prediction platforms.
• Experience with biophysical and structural techniques such as X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, isothermal titration calorimetry, or multi-angle light scattering.
• Experience applying antibody discovery or engineering approaches in oncology, immunology, neuroscience, or other therapeutic relevant areas.
• Experience in neuroscience or prior experience as project lead in pharma or biotech setting
• Experience training or providing technical guidance to fellow scientists and research associates in a team-based laboratory setting.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a protein engineering representative on discovery project teams, owning the technical strategy for integrated engineering campaigns from early concept through lead identification, optimization, and nomination.
• Design, execute, and troubleshoot antibody engineering workflows, including affinity maturation, humanization, format conversion, expression, purification, and characterization.
• Engineer and evaluate IgG, Fab, scFv, bispecific, multispecific, and emerging antibody formats.
• Characterize antibodies using SEC, SPR/BLI, and related assays to assess binding and developability.
• Partner across Biologics Discovery, Structural Biology, Computational Biology, DMPK, Toxicology, and project teams to advance programs.
• Analyze complex datasets, identify risks, and develop mitigation strategies to guide decisions.
• Evaluate and implement emerging technologies, including AI/ML-enabled antibody design.
• Lead scientific discussions, present findings, and engage with external partners and CROs.
• Author protocols, study reports, and technical documentation to a standard suitable for regulatory submission, and maintain rigorous, timely records in electronic laboratory notebooks.

Benefits

• wellbeing support
• retirement and financial protection benefits
• insurance offerings (medical, dental, vision, life and disability)
• Flexible Time Off (FTO)
• 11 paid company holidays
• 160 hours of paid vacation annually for new hires
• 3 optional holidays
• paid sick leave
• up to two paid volunteer days per year
• summer hours flexibility
• leaves of absence for medical, personal, parental, caregiver, bereavement, or military needs
• annual Global Shutdown between Christmas Day and New Year's Day

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree