Display Technologies Scientist II: Phage Display Expert

Xaira Therapeutics; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 124,000 - 155,000; Full time

Job summary

Xaira Therapeutics seeks a seasoned protein biochemist to own phage display campaigns end-to-end within the Display Technologies group. You will design strategies, troubleshoot challenging membrane-protein targets, and convert campaigns into high-quality data for AI antibody design.

You will mentor associates, set technical standards, and collaborate with computational and engineering colleagues to scale data generation in a fast-paced, collaborative setting.

Qualifications

• PhD in a related field with 2–4 years of industry experience.
• Hands-on phage display for antibody/protein discovery with library design, panning, hit validation.
• Strong molecular biology skills for library construction, including cloning, mutagenesis, and assembly.
• Experience with flow cytometry (FACS) including data interpretation.
• Experience with membrane proteins (GPCRs) in cell-based expression systems or recombinant formats.
• Knowledge of binding assays (ELISA) and mammalian cell culture.
• Excellent analytical and communication skills.
• Ability to work in a cross-functional team and mentor junior colleagues.

Responsibilities

• Independently design, execute, and own phage display campaigns from library through panning and hit validation for soluble antigens and membrane-protein targets.
• Develop and optimize selection strategies for difficult targets and troubleshoot production/presentation quality issues.
• Design and build display libraries using core molecular biology techniques to generate diverse repertoires.
• Conduct clonal-level affinity and functional characterization (FACS, ELISA, SPR) and scale to higher-throughput formats.
• Collaborate with computational and ML teams to structure and quality-control data for model training.
• Mentor associate scientists and contribute to technical standards and documentation.

Skills

Phage display

Flow cytometry

Cloning

Mutagenesis

Protein engineering

ELISA

Membrane proteins

Education

PhD in Molecular Biology/Biochemistry/Immunology/Protein Engineering

Tools

SPR

BLI/Octet

Mammalian cell culture

Job description

Xaira Therapeutics seeks a seasoned protein biochemist to own phage display campaigns end-to-end within the Display Technologies group. You will design strategies, troubleshoot challenging membrane-protein targets, and convert campaigns into high-quality data for AI antibody design.

You will mentor associates, set technical standards, and collaborate with computational and engineering colleagues to scale data generation in a fast-paced, collaborative setting.