Senior Scientist/Staff Scientist, Protein Science (industry experience required)

Septerna is a biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, CA on a mission to develop life-changing medicines for patients with the vision to become the industry-leading G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-focused drug discovery company. The company’s Native Complex Platform™ recapitulates GPCRs with their native structure, function, and dynamics outside of the cellular context. This approach enables novel access to modern structural and screening technologies used in industrial-scale drug discovery for the entire class of GPCRs. Septerna has an emerging pipeline of GPCR-targeted small molecule programs with potential for growth to target many GPCRs that have been undruggable and unexploited to date.

We are excited to expand our multidisciplinary team of individuals focused on creating revolutionary medicines to address the unmet needs of patients. At Septerna we strive to embrace diversity of thought, expertise, and background through collaboration. To join our ambitious team, be prepared to bring your real self to work every day; grow and learn from a talented team of drug hunters, scientists, and business professionals; and contribute your passion, creativity, and energy to accomplish our mission. We share a fearless pursuit of ground-breaking innovations and cultivate an environment where our employees succeed by learning from each other and working as a team.

We are committed to the development of meaningful therapeutics for patients with indications of high unmet need. This is a tremendous opportunity to work with talented individuals on the frontlines of therapeutic discovery and development. You will directly help move therapies through preclinical research, positioning them for success in the clinic. The successful candidate will add their passion, unique talents, and expertise to a dynamic team motivated to discover new disease-modifying therapeutics for patients in a fast-paced environment.

For more information see: www.septerna.com.

The Role:

We are seeking passionate and creative individuals who want to contribute to Septerna’s mission to utilize innovative drug discovery technologies for GPCR targets. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in protein biochemistry, including expression, purification, and characterization of proteins from mammalian, bacterial, and insect cells at a variety of scales. The chosen candidate will be working in a collaborative team contributing to improvements in protein expression and purification to support production and characterization of proteins for use in structural biology, biophysics, and small molecule drug discovery.  This position offers the unique opportunity to join an innovative well-funded biotechnology company and to contribute to its long-term success.  

The position is based in South San Franscisco, CA.  Title and compensation commensurate with experience.

Responsibilities

• Perform as a hands-on protein scientist to help fully enable Septerna’s Native Complex™  
• Design and implement workflows to express, purify and characterize soluble and membrane proteins from mammalian, bacterial, and insect cells. 
• Develop and deploy platforms for parallel mid-scale screening of protein production constructs to enable optimization of protein quality and yield.
• Closely collaborate with protein sciences team to automate and streamline current protein production workflows.  
• Responsibilities will include expression construct design, protein engineering, eukaryotic cell culture, automated column chromatography (FPLC/HPLC), and protein QC.
• Work in a collaborative environment to support discovery, biophysics, and structural biology efforts for internal drug discovery programs.   
• Independently design, execute, and interpret biochemical workflows
• Data analysis, documentation, and presentation in group and project team meetings 

Qualifications

• PhD with a minimum of 5+ years, or BS/MS with 10+ years, of relevant experience in a biotechnology or pharmaceutical setting.
• Proficiency in protein engineering, cell culture, and protein expression in bacterial, insect, and mammalian systems is required.
• Expertise in design of protein expression constructs focused on parallel exploration of promoters, tags, and other elements to improve protein yield and quality.
• Required hands-on experience with small-scale multi-parallel expression and purification.
• Strong experience in protein purification using FPLC-based column chromatography including affinity, ion exchange, and size exclusion.  
• Experience with purification and characterization of membrane proteins, particularly GPCRs, using detergents, nanodiscs, amphipols, and other stabilization technologies considered a plus.
• Knowledge of protein characterization techniques including multi-angle light scattering (MALS), Differential Scanning Fluorimetry (DSF), analytical size exclusion (AnSEC), etc.    
• Familiarity with automation and data analysis/reporting software is highly desired. 
• Demonstrated experience building strong partnerships across the organization; ability to work collaboratively in a team-oriented environment while also working independently on experimental planning, data analysis and interpretation
• Clear and effective verbal and written communication skills

The anticipated salary range for candidates who will work in South San Francisco, CA is $135,000 - $155,000. Individual pay may vary based on additional factors, including, and without limitation, job-related skills, experience, work location and relevant education or training. Septerna's compensation package also includes benefits, stock options, and annual target bonus for full-time positions.

We are an Equal Opportunity employer and will consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability status. 

Note to Employment Agencies: Please do not forward any agency resumes. The company will not be responsible for any fees related to resumes that are unsolicited.