Senior Scientist – Immunology and biotherapeutics

Novartis•Cambridge, MA

16d•$98,700 - $183,300•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Scientist will join Novartis’s Immunogenicity and Mechanistic Immunology unit in the Biologics Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The unit focuses on immune profiling and immunogenicity assessment to characterize and optimize biotherapeutics, including antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates (AOCs). Working within multidisciplinary project teams, the scientist will design and conduct immune profiling studies tailored to target tissues and diseases to support the selection of safe and effective AOCs and related xRNA biotherapeutics. The role focuses on evaluating interactions between novel biotherapeutic modalities and immune cells and pathways. The scientist will develop mechanistic understanding to inform therapeutic design, candidate selection, translational biomarker strategies, and early safety risk assessment, with emphasis on immunological understanding and assay excellence. The position is on-site in Cambridge, MA; relocation support is not available. The successful candidate will bring expertise in human immunology, immune profiling, and disease-relevant multicellular assay systems, together with working knowledge of xRNA biotherapeutics and general immunogenicity principles. They will design and execute studies, analyze and interpret findings, communicate results, and collaborate across discovery and early development programs.

Requirements

Recent Ph.D. graduate (0–1 year) or an MSc in a life science, preferably immunology or cell biology, plus 2–5 years of research experience in human immunology or cell biology in industry or academic settings.
Deep expertise in human immunology and immune assay development, preferably using primary immune cells, multicellular assay systems, tissue-relevant models, or disease-relevant ex vivo platforms.
Experience assessing immunogenicity, immune activation, cytokine release, anti-drug immune responses, or immune-related liabilities for biologics or emerging therapeutic modalities.
Ability to critically analyze data, learn and combine new techniques and concepts quickly, and design and prioritize experiments.
Proficiency with immunological and molecular readouts such as flow cytometry, immunoassays, qPCR, transcriptomics, or imaging.
Scientific curiosity, initiative, commitment, flexibility, organization, and presentation skills.
Ability to work independently and as a team member, with open communication with groups and collaborators.

Nice To Haves

Working knowledge of xRNA biotherapeutics, AOCs, or antibody-based delivery platforms.
Experience in orthogonal omics data analysis.

Responsibilities

Design, establish, and execute immunology-focused profiling strategies to evaluate immune cell activation and modulation, cytokine release, innate immune sensing, adaptive immune responses, and disease-relevant functional outcomes.
Independently execute and analyze complex assays involving primary immune and non-immune cells, multicolor FACS analysis, and functional immunological assays.
Generate hypotheses; design, execute, critically analyze, and interpret experiments; prioritize experiments; and design follow-up experiments.
Generate mechanistic immunology data packages that support candidate optimization, translational biomarker hypotheses, safety risk assessment, and decision-making across discovery and early development programs.
Collaborate with teams in immunology, disease biology, oligonucleotide biology, antibody engineering, bioanalytics, toxicology, and translational medicine to align assay strategy with program needs.
Communicate and present results regularly, prepare reports, and represent the unit in project teams.
Develop novel assays or analysis tools based on project needs across different disease areas.
Maintain familiarity with scientific and technical literature relevant to projects.