Senior Protein Design Scientist (Hybrid, Equity)

Clera; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 80,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Clera, an early-stage AI-driven biotech company in New York, seeks a versatile scientist to advance protein design and model-driven biotech workflows. You will refine diffusion and language models, operate an inference platform, and develop protocols for liquid handlers while supporting customer adoption.

The role blends hands-on wet-lab work (BLI/SPR assays) with software-driven optimization, leveraging tools like ESM and ProtT5. Hybrid work in NY is offered.

Qualifications

• 2+ years building or operating protein design/structure prediction systems in a design-make-test workflow.
• 3+ years in biotech or life sciences software GTM, solutions engineering, or customer success.
• Hands-on experience with Hamilton, Tecan, Opentrons liquid handlers.
• Hands-on experience designing BLI or SPR assays and fitting kinetic curves.
• Experience with tools such as ESM, ProtT5, RFdiffusion, BindCraft; Python or scripting for automation.
• Biology knowledge including protein structure and receptor biology.
• Experience with scientific software users and biotech sales cycles is valuable.

Responsibilities

• Refine discrete diffusion, protein language, and structure prediction models, including model architectures and constrained redesign workflows.
• Operate and improve a scientific inference platform, and analyze user behavior, usage patterns, and churn.
• Write, debug, and deploy protocols for liquid-handling robots and manage screening instrumentation.
• Run BLI or SPR assays end-to-end, from assay design and sample preparation through kinetic fitting and quality control.
• Diagnose experimental and computational failure modes, including mass transport, nonspecific binding, aggregation, and poor referencing.
• Design sequences, synthesize or express them, measure kinetics, update models, and iterate on improved candidates.
• Support scientific users and customer adoption with accurate, personalized outreach and an understanding of biotech buying processes.

Skills

Protein design systems

Biotech software GTM

Liquid handling methods

BLI/SPR assays

Biology knowledge

Biotech sales cycles

Tools

ESM

ProtT5

RFdiffusion

BindCraft

Job description

Clera, an early-stage AI-driven biotech company in New York, seeks a versatile scientist to advance protein design and model-driven biotech workflows. You will refine diffusion and language models, operate an inference platform, and develop protocols for liquid handlers while supporting customer adoption.

The role blends hands-on wet-lab work (BLI/SPR assays) with software-driven optimization, leveraging tools like ESM and ProtT5. Hybrid work in NY is offered.