Principal Scientist, Protein Purification, Team Lead

Scorpion Therapeutics; Spring House (PA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Johnson & Johnson's Biologics Discovery seeks a Principal Scientist and Team Lead in Protein Purification. The role focuses on advancing therapeutic antibodies, multispecifics, and recombinant proteins for preclinical studies.

You will lead a team, define purification strategies, guide process development and scaling, and optimize quality and yield using chromatography, FPLC, HPLC, and analytical methods. Cross-functional collaboration is essential.

Qualifications

• PhD in biochemistry, biochemical or chemical engineering or related field.
• 5+ years in biologics or drug discovery within pharma or biotech.
• Proven leadership in scientific team development.
• Deep expertise in protein purification and characterization.
• Experience with scalable process transfer.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a team of scientists.
• Define purification strategies for biologics projects.
• Guide process development and scaling for protein production.
• Apply chromatography, FPLC, and HPLC along with analytical methods to optimize quality, yield, and scalability.
• Collaborate across discovery, development, and enabling functions.
• Influence decisions on molecule quality and characterization.
• Improve automation and digital workflows across the purification platform.

Skills

Leadership

Protein purification

Process development

Analytical methods

Education

PhD in biochemistry/biochemical/chemical engineering

Tools

Chromatography

FPLC

HPLC

Job description

Role

Principal Scientist and Team Lead in Protein Purification within Johnson & Johnson's Biologics Discovery, focusing on advancing therapeutic antibodies, multispecifics, and recombinant proteins for preclinical studies.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities include building and leading a team of scientists, defining purification strategies, guiding process development and scaling, and applying technical expertise in chromatography, FPLC, HPLC, and analytical methods to optimize protein quality, yield, and scalability. The role involves collaborating across discovery and development disciplines, influencing decision-making on molecule quality, and improving automation and digital workflows.

Qualifications

• PhD in biochemistry, biochemical or chemical engineering, or related field
• 5+ years in biologics or drug discovery within pharma or biotech
• proven leadership in scientific team development
• deep expertise in protein purification and characterization
• experience with scalable process transfer

Preferred

• experience with bispecifics or complex protein formats
• early-stage CMC development
• high-throughput automation
• and external scientific contributions

Location

The position is based in Spring House, PA, and involves cross-functional collaboration with areas such as biophysics, pharmacology, and process development, with a focus on biologics discovery and preclinical candidate generation.