Senior Scientist - Protein Biochemist

Amgen • Thousand Oaks, CA

7d • $134,139 - $181,482

About The Position

Join Amgen’s Mission of Serving Patients. At Amgen, if you feel like you’re part of something bigger, it’s because you are. Our shared mission—to serve patients living with serious illnesses—drives all that we do. Since 1980, we’ve helped pioneer the world of biotech in our fight against the world’s toughest diseases. With our focus on four therapeutic areas –Oncology, Inflammation, General Medicine, and Rare Disease– we reach millions of patients each year. Amgen is advancing a broad and deep pipeline of medicines to treat cancer, heart disease, inflammatory conditions, rare diseases, and obesity and obesity-related conditions. As a member of the Amgen team, you’ll help make a lasting impact on the lives of patients as we research, manufacture, and deliver innovative medicines to help people live longer, fuller happier lives. Our award-winning culture is collaborative, innovative, and science based. If you have a passion for challenges and the opportunities that lay within them, you’ll thrive as part of the Amgen team. Join us and transform the lives of patients while transforming your career.

Requirements

• Doctorate degree PhD OR PharmD OR MD [and relevant post-doc where applicable] OR Master’s degree and 3 years of Molecular, Structural Biology experience. OR Bachelor’s degree and 5 years of Molecular, Structural Biology experience.

Nice To Haves

• Demonstrated expertise in expression, purification, and quality assessment of challenging recombinant proteins, with a track record of producing material suitable for cryo-EM, X-ray crystallography, or other structural biology applications.
• Strong hands-on experience with membrane proteins, including GPCRs; experience with other challenging protein classes is also highly valued.
• Deep understanding of protein stability, folding, homogeneity, and aggregation, with a hypothesis-driven approach to troubleshooting low expression, instability, heterogeneity, aggregation, or poor complex formation.
• Experience with mammalian, insect, and/or microbial expression systems.
• Expertise in chromatography-based purification, including affinity, ion exchange, hydrophobic interaction, and size-exclusion chromatography, using systems such as Cytiva ÄKTA or Agilent HPLC.
• Proficiency with biochemical and biophysical methods relevant to protein quality and complex formation, such as SDS-PAGE, immunoblotting, analytical SEC, SEC-MALS, DLS, SPR, and mass spectrometry.
• Excellent communication, prioritization, and collaboration skills, with the ability to independently manage multiple deliverables in a fast-paced research environment.
• Strong dedication and commitment to protein purification in support of structural biology projects.

Responsibilities

• Designing, planning, and executing the generation of key enabling reagents that support the structure determination of target molecules via X-ray crystallography and/or cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM).
• Collaborating closely with structural biologists within the group and contributing to advancing drug discovery efforts.
• Protein Biochemistry: Be actively involved in the design and execution of construct design, molecular cloning and protein expression strategies with the Amgen Discovery Protein Sciences team and/or CROs; design and execute purification strategies to support the structure determination of drug targets in complex with therapeutic molecules.
• Collaborative Support: Work closely with structural biologists to generate high-quality protein samples for structural biology techniques, particularly X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM.
• Method Development: Develop and optimize purification protocols and reagents, ensuring high protein purity, homogeneity, and stability for structural studies.
• Characterization and Quality Control: Use biochemical and biophysical techniques (e.g., SDS-PAGE, Western blot, spectrophotometry, SEC-MALS, SPR, mass spectrometry) to assess protein quality and stability. Collaborate with team members to provide structural biology insights into the mechanism of action (MOA) of target proteins.
• Project Management: Manage multiple projects simultaneously, ensuring they are completed within timelines while meeting high-quality standards.
• Team Communication: Present research finds effectively in both written and oral formats for internal teams and external collaborators in a timely and transparent manner.
• Innovative Thinking: Continuously troubleshoot and optimize experimental workflows, applying creative solutions to overcome challenges in protein production and purification.

Benefits

• A 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
• A discretionary annual bonus program, or for field sales representatives, a sales-based incentive plan
• Stock-based long-term incentives
• Award-winning time-off plans
• Flexible work models where possible.

What This Job Offers

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