Senior Scientist, Upstream Process Development (Cmc)

AbCellera is an energetic, and rapidly growing tech company with an amazing team that searches, decodes, and analyzes natural immune systems to find antibodies that its partners can develop into drugs to prevent and treat disease. Working at the interface of computation, engineering, and biology, AbCellera is rebuilding the front-end process of how drugs are discovered with a discovery platform that integrates modern technologies from engineering, microfluidics, single-cell analysis, high-throughput genomics, machine learning, and hyper-scale data science. With over 400 AbCellerites and growing, we’re expanding our capabilities to include CMC development and GMP manufacturing of antibodies to bring therapies from idea to patients, faster.
We are seeking a highly motivated and self-directed Senior Scientist to join our newly formed CMC Upstream Process Development group, responsible for the development and characterisation of high-yield, robust, and scalable suspension mammalian cell culture processes for manufacturing biologics drug substance. The successful candidate will work in a high-performing and fast-paced collaborative environment, playing an active role in establishing our cell culture process capabilities.
We’d love to hear from you if

• You are an innovator and ready to help new approaches to the discovery and development of therapeutics
• You have a strong desire to support early antibody discovery work by developing ways to improve and speed up the discovery to CMC development to GMP manufacturing paradigm
• You are ready to revolutionize therapeutic development and move at lightning speed to create a legacy in our industry
• You are an outstanding communicator and teammate
• You are highly motivated and excited about the opportunity to work with an inspired team on challenging problems that matter

How You Might Spend Your Days

• Performing design-of-experiments (DoE) with small-scale bioreactor systems for process design and optimisation including media/feed development (e.g., ambr15 and ambr250).
• Managing your own work to ensure that agreed targets are met in a timely manner and effectively communicating results, progress, and plans.
• Authoring SOPs, technical reports, batch records, and tech transfer documents.
• Tech transfer to internal facilities or external partners for scaled-up manufacture of biologics drug substance to support nonclinical and clinical studies.
• Operation of stirred tank benchtop bioreactors for recombinant CHO cell lines expressing therapeutic antibodies, bispecifics, and other related biologics.
• Working cross-functionally with other CMC functions including downstream and analytical development.

Required Qualifications And Experience

• Ability to work in a fast-paced and dynamic technical environment.
• Working knowledge of CHO cell biology and metabolism.
• PhD in Biochemical/Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, biochemistry or related discipline with 5-10+ years of relevant biotech industry experience.
• Experience in performing manufacturability assessment studies for lead candidate selection.
• Candidates with BSc/MSc degrees and 8+ years of relevant biotech industry experience will also be considered.
• Experience of operating industrial CHO cell-based fed-batch processes using chemically defined media and feeds with microbioreactors and benchtop bioreactors.
• Detailed knowledge of mammalian cell culture bioreactor design, engineering principles, and scale-up.
• Foster a positive can-do attitude with a willingness to expand skill set and responsibilities.
• Ability to work collaboratively as a member of a cross-functional team with excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Strong attention to detail and documentation of experimental work.
• Experience with statistical experimental design (DoE) for process optimisation.

Desirable experience:

• Experience of Quality by Design (QbD) concepts to experimental design and planning.
• Experience in scale-up and tech transfer of bioreactor process design for GMP manufacturing.
• Working knowledge of downstream purification methodology and analytical methods.
• Experience with cell culture media and feed development.

What We Offer
A generous compensation package including an equity stake in AbCellera’s success. Our headquarters are nestled in the heart of Vancouver, Canada - we’ll support you and your family in every way we can to relocate if you haven't had the joy of living in this beautiful area!
About AbCellera
At AbCellera, we find the next generation of therapeutic antibodies. To succeed, we have created innovative solutions at every step - custom antigen preparation and immunizations, microfluidics, high-throughput imaging, genomics, computation, machine learning and laboratory automation - leaving no stone unturned and revolutionizing how scientists can explore natural antibody diversity and the scale at which they can do it. You’ll join a diverse and multi-disciplinary team of biologists, biochemists, engineers, bioinformaticians, computer scientists and physicists - all working together to bring better therapies to patients. This is life-changing research and you could be a part of it.
We’re a growing company with state-of-the-art discovery tools and the drive to be the best in the industry. This isn’t just about having the best technology. We know we need a world-class team of innovators working together to solve the toughest problems. We look for people with drive and energy. Idealists. People we love and people we trust. This may be unconventional, but it is the key to our success. We’re looking for someone like you to support and organize our efforts along the way.