Senior Protein Expression & Purification Lead

Indiana Ag Connection; Indianapolis, Northern (IN, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation packages

PTO and holidays

Parental leave

Employee Resource Groups

Annual bonus

Flexible work arrangements

401K matching

Job summary

Elanco seeks a Senior Research Scientist, Protein Expression & Purification Team Lead, in a hybrid role based at the Indianapolis, IN HQ. You will lead a team of scientists responsible for end-to-end protein generation from DNA construct design through purification and lot-release testing to enable pre-clinical animal studies.

The role requires a Ph.D. in a related field and 3+ years in biopharmaceuticals with mammalian expression (CHOs/HEK293) and multi-step purification; leadership experience

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Chemical Engineering, Pharmaceutical Sciences, or a closely related scientific discipline.
• Minimum 3+ years hands-on experience in biopharmaceutical industry or post-doctoral setting with expertise in mammalian protein expression and multi-step purification using automated chromatography systems (KTA/UNION).
• Experience directing multi-person scientific workflows and mentoring laboratory scientists.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of scientists focused on end-to-end protein generation workflow, establishing priorities and resources.
• Serve as the protein sciences SME across multiple projects, providing technical leadership, timelines, and risk mitigation.
• Direct the end-to-end workflow from expression design to purification and lot-release testing for pre-clinical studies.
• Oversee analytics such as CE-SDS, HPLC, BLI/Octet to ensure high-purity protein lots.
• Identify and implement platform improvements and automation while maintaining data integrity.

Skills

mammalian protein expression

protein purification

team leadership

Education

Ph.D. in Biochemistry or related field

Tools

KTA FPLC

UNICORN software

Job description

Elanco seeks a Senior Research Scientist, Protein Expression & Purification Team Lead, in a hybrid role based at the Indianapolis, IN HQ. You will lead a team of scientists responsible for end-to-end protein generation from DNA construct design through purification and lot-release testing to enable pre-clinical animal studies.

The role requires a Ph.D. in a related field and 3+ years in biopharmaceuticals with mammalian expression (CHOs/HEK293) and multi-step purification; leadership experience