Technical Lead - Wet Lab Protein Engineer

Position Overview 

AV and the AFRL Biological Materials and Processing Research Team are seeking a Protein Engineer to spearhead the directed evolution and screening pipelines of proteins for high-affinity ion coordination. This role will generate diverse protein libraries, develop robust high-throughput screening (HTS) assays, and isolate variants with selectivity and affinity for specific Rare Earth Elements. 

The candidate will serve as the primary technical liaison to the Computational Design Team, ensuring a seamless, data-driven feedback loop. The core mission of this role is to lead the translation, production, and screening of computationally designed proteins, strategically utilizing results to optimize subsequent rounds of directed evolution. Additionally, this role will manage scale-up strategy for protein production and integration into pilot-scale commercial applications. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Project Leadership & Roadmap Management: Define project milestones, manage timelines, and allocate resources effectively to ensure the wet-lab team meets overarching program goals. Serve as the primary point of contact for project stakeholders. 

• Mentorship & Technical Oversight: Provide daily technical guidance, mentorship, and career development support to junior and mid-level scientists and technicians, fostering a collaborative and high-performing lab environment. 

• Strategic Integration of Computational Designs: Oversee the high-level bridge between dry-lab and wet-lab operations; collaborate with the computational biology lead to establish frameworks for translating candidate designs, scaffolds, and libraries into physical, high-diversity protein libraries. 

• Advanced Library Construction & Directed Evolution: Architect the experimental design for generating protein/peptide libraries using state-of-the-art molecular biology techniques, ensuring quality control and diversity standards are met. 

• HTS & Selection Architecture: Lead the development, automation, and validation of robust HTS assays (such as cell-surface display or plate-based fluorimetric assays) to screen designs for highly selective Rare Earth Element (REE) binding. 

• Data Integration & Loop Closure Leadership: Analyze complex screening datasets to identify deep sequence-activity relationships. Establish formal feedback mechanisms to deliver high-quality experimental data back to the computational design team to validate predictive models and guide the next, smarter round of directed evolution. 

• Process Optimization & Scale-Up Strategy: Direct the refinement of screening pressures (pH, competing transition metals, lanthanide concentrations) to mimic industrial bio-purification conditions. Oversee the evaluation of candidate protein variant "hits" at pilot-scale levels. 

Required Qualifications 

• Education & Experience: Ph.D. in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Bioengineering, Biophysics, or a related field with 4+ years of post-graduate experience in high-throughput protein engineering. (Candidates with an M.S. and 8+ years of experience, including a proven track record of technical leadership, will be considered). 

• Leadership Experience: Minimum of 2 years of experience formally or informally leading technical projects, managing workflows, or supervising laboratory personnel in an academic or industrial biotech setting. 

• Protein Engineering Expertise: Deep, authoritative expertise in designing, optimizing, and characterizing proteins and biologics using state-of-the-art molecular biology and HTS techniques. Proven ability to translate engineered proteins into robust, scalable solutions for real-world applications. 

• Technical Expertise: High-throughput Recombinant protein production in E. Coli and/or possible yeast surface display 

• Citizenship: U.S. Citizenship is required due to government facility access requirements. 

Preferred Skills 

• Project Management Frameworks: Familiarity with project management methodologies (e.g., Agile, Scrum, or traditional Gantt-based tracking) to manage timelines and deliverables. 

• Laboratory Leadership & Characterization: Experience interpreting and overseeing biophysical characterization techniques (ITC, SPR, Fluorescence) to validate experimental data and guide project direction. 

• Automation/High-Throughput Screening: Experience with high-throughput liquid handling robots or automated screening workflows. Demonstrated experience developing and running robust selection/screening assays (e.g., yeast/phage display, plate-based fluorescence, or cell-free translation systems). 

• Bio-Interfacial Modeling: Knowledge of how proteins behave when tethered to solid surfaces (e.g., resin or silica). 

• Wet-Lab Library Generation: Hands-on expertise in advanced molecular biology for library construction (e.g., Golden Gate cloning, Gibson Assembly, site-saturation mutagenesis, error-prone PCR). 

• Protein Purification: Familiarity with affinity tag based recombinant protein purification using an FPLC. 

• Process Scale-Up Execution: Demonstrated track record of successfully supporting or leading the scale-up of commercial/industrial protein applications from laboratory- to pilot-scale.