Senior Research Associate, Protein Engineering
Sarmal Inc•San Diego, CA
•$72,000 - $85,000•Onsite
About The Position
The Senior Research Associate will execute protein engineering experiments including library generation, molecular cloning, protein expression, purification, and high-throughput screening of enzyme variants. Working closely with the Protein Engineering team members, this individual will help establish scalable screening workflows and generate high-quality experimental data to support enzyme optimization for next-generation sequencing applications.
Requirements
- Industry experience in protein engineering, molecular biology, or enzyme engineering.
- Hands-on experience generating mutagenesis libraries and recombinant DNA constructs.
- Familiarity with protein engineering workflows, including directed evolution and library generation.
- Experience with high-throughput screening (HTS) platforms and automated liquid handling is highly desirable.
- Experience with molecular cloning techniques, including Gibson Assembly, Golden Gate Assembly, PCR, and site-directed mutagenesis.
- Experience expressing recombinant proteins in bacterial systems (e.g., E. coli).
- Familiarity with protein purification techniques including affinity chromatography and FPLC.
- Experience performing enzyme activity assays and screening large numbers of variants.
- Strong molecular biology skills including DNA preparation, sequencing verification, and plasmid construction.
- Excellent organizational, troubleshooting, and experimental documentation skills.
- Ability to work effectively in a collaborative, fast-paced startup environment.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with polymerases, nucleic acid enzymes, or sequencing technologies is a strong plus.
Responsibilities
- Construct mutagenesis libraries using site-directed, saturation, and combinatorial mutagenesis techniques.
- Perform molecular cloning, plasmid construction, and library quality assessment.
- Execute high-throughput protein engineering workflows for enzyme variant generation and screening.
- Express and purify recombinant proteins using bacterial expression systems.
- Perform automated and semi-automated screening assays in 96- and 384-well plate formats.
- Execute biochemical and functional assays to identify improved enzyme variants.
- Support development and optimization of high-throughput screening (HTS) assays.
- Characterize enzyme variants using activity assays and preliminary kinetic analyses.
- Maintain library inventories and experimental databases.
- Analyze screening results and summarize findings for project teams.
- Troubleshoot cloning, expression, purification, and screening workflows.
- Collaborate with Protein Engineering, Biochemistry, Computational Biology, and Automation teams.
- Maintain detailed laboratory notebooks and contribute to SOP development.
Benefits
- Medical, dental, and vision coverage
- Company-paid life insurance
- 401(k) retirement plan
- Generous paid time off
- Access to additional voluntary benefits, employee perks, and discount programs
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
Associate degree
