Principal Scientist, Lentiviral Vector Cell Line Development

Asimov; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Asimov in Boston, MA is seeking a Principal Scientist to lead the Lentiviral Vector CLD team, steering the platform roadmap and developing stable producer cell lines for lentiviral vector therapeutics.

You will mentor scientists, partner with our commercial team to present capabilities, and drive cross-functional project plans while advancing workflows and scale-up for GMP activities.

Qualifications

• MS/PhD in Biological Engineering, Virology, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology or related field.
• 10+ years of hands-on biopharma experience, including 6+ years in lentiviral vector producer or packaging cell line development for GLP/GMP.
• 2+ years managing direct reports and providing technical guidance.
• Proven track record balancing bench leadership with platform strategy and roadmapping.
• Experience communicating technical work to external stakeholders and translating needs into technical plans.
• Publications/patents/conference presentations demonstrating external communication of scientific work.

Responsibilities

• Set and steer the scientific roadmap for the Lentiviral Vector CLD platform.
• Lead lentiviral vector stable producer cell line development including transfection, pool generation, cloning, screening, characterization and cell banking.
• Serve as primary CLD technical contact on customer and commercial projects; translate customer requirements into executable CLD plans.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to scientists; manage direct reports and ensure robust experimental design and data record‑keeping.
• Represent CLD on cross‑functional and leadership teams; communicate progress, risks, and plans clearly.
• Support innovation through new workflows and applications; advance viral vector production methods and product quality attributes.
• Collaborate with Synthetic Biology and Process Development teams across projects and scale-up efforts.
• Design experiments, analyze data, troubleshoot, and maintain detailed records.
• Represent CLD externally through publications and presentations.

Skills

Leadership

Project management

Data analysis

Scientific communication

GLP/GMP experience

Education

MS/PhD in Biological Engineering, Virology, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology

Tools

Ambr system

Benchtop bioreactor

Job description

Our mission at Asimov is to advance humanity's ability to design living systems, enabling biotechnologies with outsized benefit to society. We are developing a mammalian synthetic biology platform––from cells to software––to enable the design and manufacture of next‑generation therapeutics.

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.

We're fueled by a vision to transform biological engineering into a fully‑fledged engineering discipline. Should you join our team, you will grow with a constantly evolving organization and push the frontiers of synthetic biology. Company culture is key to Asimov, and ours is a culture of recombination; we believe that our mission can only be achieved by bringing together a diverse team with a mixture of backgrounds and perspectives.