Scientist – Cell Engineering & Functional Target Validation

Amgen • Thousand Oaks, CA

1d

About The Position

Amgen’s Surfaceome Platform advances the discovery and validation of cell type-specific surface targets across disease areas to enable targeted therapeutics. The Surface Biology early validation group triages proteomics- and transcriptomics-derived hits, defining actionable target properties and guiding early therapeutic modality selection.

The Scientist supports cellular engineering, genetic tool generation, and cell-based functional assays within a high-throughput validation funnel. The role uses hands-on laboratory expertise to engineer target-specific cellular models, establish reporter systems, and execute functional screening assays. The Scientist constructs cellular tools through genetic perturbation and develops and implements downstream functional assays to support target biology validation and early pipeline decisions.

Requirements

• Doctorate degree (Ph.D.), or Master’s degree and 2 years of relevant scientific experience, or Bachelor’s degree and 4 years of relevant scientific experience.
• Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, Biotechnology, or a related scientific discipline.
• Demonstrated scientific curiosity, independent thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Experience with precision genome editing using CRISPR systems for genetic perturbation, including targeted knockout, knock-in (including functional tags and human gene sequences), and CRISPR activation or knockdown, using RNP electroporation or lentiviral transduction.
• Experience with multi-color flow cytometry, cellular staining protocols, surface expression verification, and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS).
• Experience developing, optimizing, and routinely executing cell-based functional assays, such as plate-based reporter readouts, luminescence or fluorescence assays, and viability or cytotoxicity assays.
• Experience designing experimental workflows in which cell line engineering strategies are directly guided by downstream functional assay requirements.
• Experience generating, single-cell cloning, and functionally validating stable cell lines and reporter systems.
• Experience collaborating in multidisciplinary research teams, with strong organizational skills, high accountability, and clear communication.
• Experience with multi-well or arrayed electroporation platforms, such as 96-well RNP electroporation, for rapid generation of transient knockouts and genetic perturbations.
• Experience with target validation concepts, using genetic perturbation approaches (KO, KI, KA) to investigate cell-surface target biology.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with membrane protein biology, cell-surface receptor trafficking, or kinetic internalization assays.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement genome editing and genetic perturbation strategies, including gene knockout, knock-in, activation, or suppression, to generate cellular models for surface target validation.
• Engineer and characterize reporter cell lines and quantitative cellular assays to assess target expression, surface localization, protein turnover, internalization, and other modality-relevant properties.
• Develop and implement functional assays using luminescence, fluorescence, and other quantitative readouts to support target confirmation, functional characterization, and early validation workflows.
• Perform flow cytometry, cell sorting, and complementary approaches to verify target expression and surface localization in engineered cellular models and validate their suitability for downstream assays.
• Maintain meticulous electronic laboratory notebooks.
• Support high-throughput flow and imaging workflows across the early validation team as portfolio demands require.
• Present functional datasets in cross-functional project team forums.

Benefits

• Comprehensive employee benefits package, including a Retirement and Savings Plan with generous company contributions, group medical, dental and vision coverage, life and disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts.
• Discretionary annual bonus program, or a sales-based incentive plan for field sales representatives.
• Stock-based long-term incentives.
• Award-winning time-off plans.
• Flexible work models where possible.
• Career development opportunities.
• Work/life balance support.

What This Job Offers

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