Vertex Summer Intern 2026, Protein Engineering

Vertex Pharmaceuticals•Seattle, WA

5d•$20 - $32•Hybrid

About The Position

Kickstart Your Career at Vertex! Are you ready to make a real impact? At Vertex, our mission is to tackle serious diseases and to change lives, for the better, for the future. Our aim is to give you the skills, insights, and career guidance to be an important part of that future; to turn your potential into progression. As a Vertex intern or co-op, you’ll work on meaningful projects, collaborate with talented teams, and learn from industry leaders. We’re passionate about innovation, inclusion, and supporting your growth—inside and outside the lab. Why Vertex? Real Projects: You’ll work on assignments that make a real impact, not just busy work. Mentorship & Networking: Connect with leaders and peers who want to see you succeed through professional networks, connections, and collaborations that will shape your longer-term career. Flexible & Supportive: We offer flexible work options with Flex @ Vertex and prioritize your wellbeing. Inclusive Culture: Collaboration and inclusion are embedded in everything we do. Career Launchpad: Build skills, explore career paths, and get guidance for your future career. Ready to apply? Submit your application and let’s turn possibilities into reality! Your Impact The Vertex Protein Engineering internship program is a multi-week experiential training program for students currently working towards an undergraduate or advanced degree in a bioscience-related discipline, or a related field of study. If you are passionate, collaborative, and growth-minded, an internship at Vertex will help you gain meaningful experience in our formulation functional areas and serve as a launchpad for your career. Important Notice Regarding Internship and Co-op Inquiries At Vertex Pharmaceuticals, we are committed to providing a fair and structured recruitment process for all students interested in internship and co-op opportunities. To ensure consistency and equity, all student applications must go through our Early Talent Acquisition Team. Due to the high volume of interest, we are unable to respond to individual solicitation. Direct solicitation to Vertex employees- including senior leaders via email will result in removal from the recruiting process. We appreciate your enthusiasm and interest in Vertex. To be considered for internship or co-op roles, please apply directly through our official application channels. ( https://www.vrtx.com/careers/career-growth-and-opportunities/internships/ ) Thank you for respecting our process and helping us maintain a fair experience for all candidates. What you will be doing: The intern will primarily work with the Protein Engineering group to help develop novel therapeutic proteins that modulate immune responses. The intern will apply molecular biology techniques to build and screen protein libraries for directed evolution yeast display campaigns. This position will enable the design of expression plasmids for potential therapeutic proteins, and the student will also become familiar with in silico protein modeling/design tools (e.g., AlphaFold, Rosetta). Though a specific project has yet to be determined, the student will work on their own project focused on technology development while also shadowing the supervisor. The student will also contribute to multiple therapeutic discovery stage Vertex projects. These discovery stage projects will involve participation in multidisciplinary project teams composed of immunologists, biochemists, and structural biologists. The student will interact closely with several members of our teams, such as specialists in stem cell differentiation, screening, genetic integrity, and epigenetics.

Requirements

A passion for discovery in immunology.
At least two years of university-level coursework in a bioscience-related discipline.
Excellent communication skills, including the capacity to clearly present and explain results.
Motivation to perform precision bench work.
Aptitude to learn quickly.
Energy and flexibly to collaborate with a busy team in a rapidly evolving company.
An eagerness to contribute to Vertex’s science.
Legal authorization to work in the United States, now and in the future.
You must be available to work full-time, 40 hours per week from May – August 2026

Nice To Haves

Research laboratory experience strongly preferred.
Experience and/or interest in protein structure prediction/design preferred.
Some experience with computational programming preferred.

Responsibilities

The intern will primarily work with the Protein Engineering group to help develop novel therapeutic proteins that modulate immune responses.
The intern will apply molecular biology techniques to build and screen protein libraries for directed evolution yeast display campaigns.
This position will enable the design of expression plasmids for potential therapeutic proteins, and the student will also become familiar with in silico protein modeling/design tools (e.g., AlphaFold, Rosetta).
The student will work on their own project focused on technology development while also shadowing the supervisor.
The student will also contribute to multiple therapeutic discovery stage Vertex projects.
These discovery stage projects will involve participation in multidisciplinary project teams composed of immunologists, biochemists, and structural biologists.
The student will interact closely with several members of our teams, such as specialists in stem cell differentiation, screening, genetic integrity, and epigenetics.