M.S. or PhD in Biological Engineering, Virology, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, or related field.
10+ years of biopharma experience, with 6+ years in lentiviral vector producer or packaging cell line development.
2+ years of experience managing direct reports and providing technical guidance.
Proven ability to balance hands-on leadership with strategic platform development.
Experience in communicating technical work to external stakeholders and translating needs into actionable plans.
Demonstrated external communication of scientific work through publications or presentations.
Familiarity with downstream purification and assessment of lentiviral vectors is highly desired.
Responsibilities
Set and steer the scientific roadmap for the Lentiviral Vector cell line development platform.
Perform stable producer cell line development processes including transfection and clone screening.
Serve as the primary technical contact for customer and commercial projects, translating requirements into project plans.
Provide technical leadership and mentorship to team scientists, managing direct reports.
Represent Lentiviral Vector CLD on cross-functional project teams, making strategic decisions.
Support innovation through the development of novel workflows and applications.
Design experiments, analyze data, and maintain detailed records.
Benefits
Opportunity to work in a nimble, forward-thinking synthetic biology startup.
Direct influence over the scientific vision and platform roadmap.
Engagement in innovative projects that shape the future of biological engineering.
Collaborative environment with cross-functional teams.
Potential for professional growth through mentorship and leadership opportunities.
Full Job Description
We are hiring a Principal Scientist to lead our Lentiviral Vector Cell Line Development team in Boston, MA. This role blends strategic leadership with hands-on experimentation, giving you direct influence over our Lentiviral Vector platform roadmap and scientific vision. You will drive the creation of stable producer cell lines for lentiviral vector therapeutics while innovating next-generation cell line development workflows. This is a unique opportunity to work at a nimble, forward-thinking synthetic biology startup and help build the future of biological engineering.
About the Role:
Set and steer the scientific roadmap for the Lentiviral Vector cell line development (CLD) platform.
Perform lentiviral vector stable producer cell line development processes including transfection, pool generation, single cell cloning, clone screening and characterization, and cell banking using state-of-the-art equipment.
Serve as the primary Lentiviral Vector CLD technical contact on customer and commercial projects. Partner with our commercial team to present platform capabilities to prospective partners and translate customer requirements into executable CLD project plans.
Provide technical leadership and mentorship to scientists on the team, including managing direct report(s) and setting a high bar for experimental design, data analysis and record-keeping.
Represent Lentiviral Vector CLD on cross-functional and leadership-facing project teams, making calls on cell line development strategy and clearly communicating progress, risk and plans.
Support innovation through development of novel workflows and applications
Support research projects to develop viral vector production methods to enhance product quality attributes such as empty/full ratio, potency and/or cell targeting.
Work effectively as part of a cross-functional team in support of a Lentiviral Vector CLD platform and in collaboration with Synthetic Biology and Process Development teams.
Design experiments, analyze data, troubleshoot, and maintain detailed records.
Represent Lentiviral Vector CLD on project teams, making decisions for cell line development activities and effectively communicating results, progress and plans.
Represent Asimov's science externally through publications and presentations at leading industry conferences.
About You:
M.S. or PhD in Biological Engineering, Virology, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, or a related field.
10+ years of hands-on experience in biopharma, including 6+ years focused on lentiviral vector producer or packaging cell line development in support of GLP or GMP production of cell or gene therapies.
2+ years of experience managing direct report(s) and providing technical guidance.
Proven track record balancing hands-on bench leadership with big-picture platform strategy and roadmapping.
Experience communicating technical work to external stakeholders and translating their needs into technical plans.
Demonstrated ability to communicate scientific work externally, evidenced by publications, patents, and/or conference presentations.
Experience with downstream purification and PQ assessment of lentiviral vectors, T-cell transduction assay, viral genome engineering, and/or host cell genome engineering related to virus production or producer cell line technologies is highly desired.
Experience with process development at Ambr or benchtop bioreactor scale is a plus.
Comfortable working with large, multidimensional datasets and applying statistical or computational methods to extract actionable biological or process insights.
Strong written and verbal communication skills required.
About Asimov
Asimov's Science Fiction is a science fiction magazine that was founded in 1977 by Isaac Asimov. The magazine publishes short stories, novellas, and novelettes, as well as book reviews and essays on science fiction. Asimov's Science Fiction is published by Dell Magazines, which is a subsidiary of Penguin Random House. The magazine is headquartered in New York City.
