Scientist II, Conjugation Development

Summary:

Vaxcyte is looking for a Scientist II, Conjugation Development. The candidate’s primary responsibility will be to lead and execute experimental activities that support company’s pneumococcal conjugate vaccine program with a focus on developing a deeper understanding of the conjugation process. In parallel, the candidate will work on conjugation process development for Vaxcyte’s pipeline programs contributing to process optimization, scalability, and technical readiness for future clinical manufacturing. Specifically, this will include preparation, purification, and analytical characterization of chemically modified polysaccharides and polysaccharide-protein conjugates. The ideal candidate will have significant laboratory experience and an excellent understanding of analytical chemistry principles. The successful candidate will be expected to design, execute, and troubleshoot experiments with minimal guidance. The candidate will also contribute when needed to a range of related areas such as analytical development and stability studies. Responsibilities will additionally include record management, data presentation at group meetings, authorship of laboratory protocols and development reports, communication with external organizations during tech transfer, and actively contributing to collaborative studies with other members of the conjugation group.

Essential Functions:

• Optimize and troubleshoot multi-step syntheses of protein-polysaccharide conjugates.
• Purify polysaccharides and conjugates using a variety of methods including dialysis, size-exclusion chromatography, and tangential flow filtration (TFF).
• Analyze polysaccharides and conjugates with a variety of analytical methods. Develop new laboratory workflows and analyses beyond established procedures when appropriate.
• Advise team members on experimental design, interpretation of results, and troubleshooting.
• Model and train team members on best practices for adherence to protocols and data management.
• Serve as a subject matter expert during tech transfer of conjugation processes to contract manufacturing organizations.
• Maintain highly organized records to enable optimization and assessment of reproducibility.
• Attend team meetings ready to provide updates on conjugation development progress.

Requirements: 

• PhD in chemistry, biochemistry, or related field with minimum 2-5 years of industry experience, or combination of industry and postdoctoral research; MS with minimum 7 years industry experience, or BS with minimum 10 years of industry experience.
• Strong biochemistry and organic chemistry knowledge base underpinning several years’ experience preparing bioconjugates.
• Proficiency with small- and large-scale techniques for purification of bioconjugates, including tangential flow filtration.
• Proficiency in a variety of techniques for bioconjugate analysis such as colorimetric assays, HPLC, and SEC-MALS.
• Sufficient knowledge of analytical principles to develop fit-for-purpose analytical methods as needed and provide cross-functional feedback on draft analytical methods.
• Experience with Design of Experiments is desirable.
• Experience with chemical modification of polysaccharides is desirable.
• Experience implementing and/or using electronic notebooks is desirable.
• Attention to detail and excellent organizational skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills; ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in written formats.
• Self-starter; ability to work in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment and collaborate effectively with other team members.
• Enthusiasm to learn the new skills and techniques necessary to tackle problems outside of current area of expertise.