Senior Scientist

Targan•Raleigh, NC

About The Position

TARGAN is seeking an experienced Senior Scientist to lead poultry health research programs supporting product development, validation, commercialization, and lifecycle improvement. The role designs, manages, and interprets laboratory, university, contract research organization (CRO), hatchery, farm, and commercial field studies focused on vaccines, biological delivery systems, poultry health, and production technologies. The Senior Scientist builds relationships with universities, CROs, poultry companies, and industry partners and provides scientific leadership across internal and external research programs. The position translates scientific, business, and customer needs into robust study plans; oversees study execution in controlled and commercial settings; analyzes results; and communicates findings that guide product and business decisions. It also involves moderate travel, including overnight and occasional short-notice trips, to customer sites, universities, CROs, hatcheries, farms, laboratories, conferences, and research partner locations. Work takes place in office, laboratory, hatchery, farm, and poultry-production environments and may involve live poultry, biological materials, dust, noise, wet areas, and temperature variation. Company and customer biosecurity, animal welfare, biosafety, personal protective equipment, and site-access requirements must be followed. A valid driver’s license and the ability to meet company travel requirements are required.

Requirements

Ph.D. in Poultry Science, Veterinary Science, Animal Science, Biological Sciences, or a related field with 5+ years of relevant experience preferred, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Alternatively, a Master’s degree in a relevant discipline with 7+ years of relevant industry or applied-research experience.
Demonstrated experience independently designing, managing, executing, and reporting poultry health research and/or commercial field studies.
Strong experimental design, statistical reasoning, data interpretation, and scientific problem-solving skills.
Working knowledge of poultry production systems, hatchery operations, flock health, animal welfare, biosecurity, vaccines, and biological products.
Ability to manage multiple studies, field activities, and external collaborations while maintaining quality, timelines, and budgets.
Strong customer-facing, scientific, and executive communication skills.
Ability to translate complex findings into practical recommendations for product, technical, and business decisions.
Experience developing and managing collaborations and studies with universities, CROs, and other external research organizations.
Experience with vaccine efficacy, challenge, immunology, microbiology, parasitology, biological delivery, or related poultry health programs.
Valid driver’s license and ability to meet company travel requirements.
Ability to comply with company and customer biosecurity, animal welfare, biosafety, personal protective equipment, and site-access requirements.

Nice To Haves

Proficiency with statistical software and electronic data-capture tools.
Experience working with poultry producers, veterinarians, hatchery teams, live-production personnel, or technical service organizations.
Experience managing external research budgets, contracts, statements of work, multi-site studies, and scientific deliverables.

Responsibilities

Design and oversee laboratory, challenge, hatchery, farm, pilot, and commercial field studies supporting poultry health technologies.
Develop study protocols, experimental designs, sampling plans, randomization and control approaches, success criteria, data-capture plans, and statistical analysis plans.
Lead field-trial readiness and execution with customer and internal teams, including site selection, schedules, bird placement, equipment and biological availability, sample logistics, training, and contingency planning.
Provide scientific and hands-on leadership during study start-up, treatment application, sample collection, health and production assessments, troubleshooting, and closeout.
Serve as scientific lead for studies conducted at universities, CROs, customer sites, and other external research partners.
Manage study timelines, budgets, milestones, deliverables, documentation, protocol deviations, and scientific quality.
Ensure compliance with approved protocols, animal welfare standards, biosecurity requirements, and data-integrity expectations.
Establish and manage strategic relationships with universities, CROs, diagnostic laboratories, poultry companies, and industry collaborators.
Identify and qualify research partners based on scientific expertise, technical capabilities, facilities, quality systems, and business needs.
Manage outsourced research activities, including protocol review, statements of work, study oversight, milestone tracking, data evaluation, and final reporting.
Coordinate multi-site research programs involving internal teams, academic investigators, CROs, customers, and other collaborators.
Represent TARGAN at universities, research partner meetings, scientific conferences, and industry events.
Partner with poultry producers, veterinarians, hatchery teams, live-production personnel, and technical service organizations to understand biological and operational challenges.
Translate customer needs and field observations into testable research objectives and practical evaluation plans.
Communicate study objectives, roles, risks, requirements, findings, limitations, and recommended next steps to scientific and non-scientific audiences.
Support technical presentations, customer education, product demonstrations, post-trial reviews, and evidence-based commercialization activities.
Analyze and interpret data from laboratory, university, CRO, hatchery, farm, and commercial studies using appropriate statistical methods.
Integrate biological, operational, and equipment data to distinguish product effects from site variability and execution-related factors.
Prepare protocols, reports, presentations, SOPs, publications, conference materials, and customer-facing scientific summaries.
Translate results into defensible conclusions and recommendations while communicating study limitations, uncertainty, and deviations.
Build strong working relationships with universities, CROs, customers, and poultry-industry collaborators, and translate research evidence into product-development, validation, technical, and commercialization decisions.