Wet Lab Protein Engineer (Selective Molecular Recognition)

AeroVironment, Inc.; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Dental

Vision

401K with company matching

9/80 work schedule

Paid holiday shutdown

Job summary

AeroVironment, Inc. is seeking a Protein Engineer to lead directed evolution and screening pipelines for proteins with high-affinity ion coordination.

You will generate diverse libraries, develop robust HTS assays, and isolate variants with selectivity for Rare Earth Elements, collaborating with the Computation Design Team. The role emphasizes translating designs to bench, optimizing assays, and feeding experimental results back to improve subsequent evolution rounds, with scale-up to

Qualifications

• PhD or MS with extensive HTS experience in protein engineering.
• Experience designing and optimizing high-throughput screening assays.
• Strong background in directed evolution and library generation.
• Familiarity with ITAR/EAR compliance and biosafety considerations.

Responsibilities

• Translate computational designs to bench and generate diverse protein libraries.
• Develop and execute automated HTS assays to identify high-affinity variants.
• Iterate directed evolution cycles using sequence-activity data.
• Integrate data with computational design to guide next iterations.
• Support scale-up from lab to pilot-scale production for application testing.

Skills

Protein engineering

HTS/assay development

Directed evolution

Data analysis (sequence-activity)

Education

Ph.D. in Chemistry/Biochemistry/Molecular Biology/Bioengineering/Biophysics or related

M.S. + 4+ years HTS experience

Tools

E. coli expression

Yeast surface display

FPLC purification

Golden Gate cloning

Gibson Assembly

Site-saturation mutagenesis

Error-prone PCR

Job description

Position Overview

AV and the AFRL Biological Materials and Processing Research Team are seeking a Protein Engineer to spearhead the directed evolution and screening pipelines of proteins for high-affinity ion coordination. This role will generate diverse protein libraries, develop robust high-throughput screening (HTS) assays, and isolate variants with selectivity and affinity for specific Rare Earth Elements. The candidate will collaborate with the Computational Design Team. The core mission of this role is to produce and screen computationally designed proteins and use results to improve the next round of directed evolution. Additionally, this role will support the scale up of protein production and integration into pilot-scale commercial applications.

Key Responsibilities

• Translate Computational Designs to the Bench: Serve as the primary bridge between dry-lab and wet-lab operations; take candidate designs, scaffolds, and libraries generated by the computational biology team and successfully translate them into physical, high-diversity protein libraries.
• Library Construction & Directed Evolution: Generate protein/peptide libraries using advanced molecular biology techniques.
• High-Throughput Screening & Selection: Develop and execute robust, automated HTS assays (such as cell-surface display or plate-based fluorimetry) to screen designs for highly selective Rare Earth Element (REE) binding, successfully isolating rare "hit" variants from background noise.
• Data Integration & Loop Closure: Analyze screening data to identify sequence-activity relationships. You will feed this high-quality experimental data back to the computational design team to validate their predictive models, troubleshoot failures, and guide the design of the next, smarter round of directed evolution.
• Assay Optimization: Continually refine screening pressures (pH, competing transition metals, lanthanide concentrations) to ensure the assay environment accurately reflects industrial bio-purification conditions.
• Test assay environments with candidate protein variants "hits" at pilot-scale levels.

Required Qualifications

• Education: Ph.D. in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Bioengineering Biophysics, or a related field. (Candidates with an M.S. and 4+ years of high-throughput engineering will be considered).
• Protein Engineering: Design, optimize, and characterize proteins and biologics using state-of-the‑art molecular biology and high-throughput screening techniques. Collaborate cross‑functionally to translate engineered proteins into robust, scalable solutions for real‑world applications.
• Technical Expertise: High-throughput Recombinant protein production in E. Coli and/or possible yeast surface display.
• Citizenship: U.S. Citizenship is required due to government facility access requirements.
• Preferred Skills: Laboratory Familiarity: Experience with (or willingness to learn) biophysical characterization techniques (ITC, SPR, Fluorescence) to help interpret experimental data.
• Automation/High-Throughput Screening: Experience with high-throughput liquid handling robots or automated screening workflows.
• Demonstrated experience developing and running robust selection/screening assays (e.g., yeast/phage display, plate-based fluorescence, or cell-free translation systems).
• Bio-Interfacial Modeling: Knowledge of how proteins behave when tethered to solid surfaces (e.g., resin or silica).
• Wet-Lab Library Generation: Hands‑on expertise in advanced molecular biology for library construction (e.g., Golden Gate cloning, Gibson Assembly, site‑saturation mutagenesis, error-prone PCR).
• Protein Purification: Familiarity with affinity tag based recombinant protein purification using an FPLC.
• Process Scale‑Up Support: Familiarity with commercial/industrial protein applications and scale up from laboratory- to pilot-scale.
• ITAR Requirement: This position requires access to information that is subject to compliance with the International Traffic Arms Regulations (“ITAR”) and/or the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”). In order to comply with the requirements of the ITAR and/or the EAR, applicants will be asked to provide specific documentation to verify U.S. person status under the ITAR and the EAR. A “U.S. person” according to their definition is a U.S. citizen, U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), or protected individual such as a refugee, or asylee. See 22 CFR § 120.15. Some positions will require current U.S. Citizenship due to contract requirements.

Benefits

• medical
• dental vision
• 401K with company matching
• 9/80 work schedule
• paid holiday shutdown

For more information about our company benefit offerings please visit: http://www.avinc.com/myavbenefits.

We also encourage you to review our company website at http://www.avinc.com to learn more about us.

Who We Are

Based in California, AeroVironment (AVAV) is a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and tactical missile systems. Founded in 1971 by celebrated physicist and engineer, Dr. Paul MacCready, we’ve been at the leading edge of technical innovation for more than 45 years. Be a part of the team that developed the world’s most widely used military drones and created the first submarine-launched reconnaissance drone, and has seven innovative vehicles that are part of the Smithsonian Institution’s permanent collection in Washington, DC. Join us today in developing the next generation of small UAS and tactical missile systems that will deliver more actionable intelligence to our customers so they can proceed with certainty – and succeed.

What We Do

Building on a history of technological innovation, AeroVironment designs, develops, produces, and supports an advanced portfolio of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and tactical missile systems. Agencies of the U.S. Department of Defense and allied military services use the company’s hand-launched UAS to provide situational awareness to tactical operating units through real-time, airborne reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition.

We are proud to be an EEO/AA Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability/veterans. AeroVironment, Inc. is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and welcomes all qualified applicants. Qualified applicants will receive fair and impartial consideration without regard to race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, genetic data, sexual orientation, gender identity or other legally protected status.

ITAR About AV

AV isn’t for anyone. We hire the curious, the relentless, the mission-obsessed. The best of the best. We don’t just build defense technology—we redefine what’s possible.