Senior Scientist-Principal Scientist Antibody Protein Engineering

Actual salary will vary based on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant skills, experience, and qualifications.

The heart of Prellis Bio's strategy is the combination of novel, cutting-edge methods in machine learning, biology at scale, and next-gen antibody discovery that address long-standing industry-wide problems in the drug development pipeline. Prellis Biologics uses proprietary technology to 3D print human lymph node organoids, enabling the rapid & diverse discovery of human antibody therapeutic candidates for a range of applications.

To drive this forward, we are assembling an incredible team of discovery biologists, computational scientists, and protein scientists who want to make a difference to this important problem.

We are seeking a Senior / Principal Scientist — Antibody Protein Engineering to join our High Throughput Discovery group. You will drive antibody design and optimization, maturing early hits into development-ready leads. You will be responsible for:

Lead antibody engineering with a strong emphasis on late-stage design and optimization to refine and advance lead candidates toward development.

Core activities:

• Reformat biologics across modalities (scFv, scFv-Fc, minibodies, Fab, VHH, Fc fusions, albumin fusions, TCRm) and assemble multispecifics (knob-in-hole, Cross Mab, DVD-Ig, common LC, DARTs)
• Fc engineering — mutations for half-life, effector-function modulation, isotype selection, and bispecific heterodimerization
• Affinity maturation — design focused libraries to improve affinity, kinetics, and specificity
• Polishing & develop ability — remove chemical liabilities, mitigate aggregation and immunogenicity, humanize when needed
• Screening & library construction — design and execute campaigns (alanine scanning, high-diversity libraries via PCR, Gibson, mutagenesis, oligo-pool synthesis); generate ML training-data campaigns; translate manual workflows to automation
• Computational design — apply structural tools (PyMOL, Schrödinger Bio Luminate / Maestro) and partner with Data Science / AI/ML on protein language and structure models (Alpha Fold, ESM, RF diffusion, ProteinMPNN, or equivalent)

• Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Bioengineering, Molecular Biology, Protein Engineering, or related field with equivalent industry experience:
  Sr. Scientist (PhD + 3-5 yrs);
  Principal Scientist (PhD + 5+ yrs)
• Hands‑on biologics reformatting across scFv, scFv‑Fc, Fab, Fc fusions, VHH, and Fc engineering
• Demonstrated experience optimizing / engineering antibody lead candidates (affinity, develop ability, and Fc properties)
• Hands‑on experience with biologics screening using iQue and MACSQuantor high content imaging (HCI).
• Computational fluency:
  PyMOL, Schrödinger (Bio Luminate / Maestro), molecular dynamics, or equivalent, and at least one protein language model (ESM, RF diffusion, ProteinMPNN, or equivalent)
• Strong molecular cloning, mutagenesis, and DNA library construction
• Mentorship of junior researchers; clear scientific communication; track record of publications, presentations, or patents
• Experience managing external vendors (CROs / CDMOs) for biologics production and characterization
• Thrive in cross‑functional collaboration

• Strong background in antibody discovery pipelines: expression, purification, screening, and analytical characterization.
• Experience continuous directed evolution (Ortho Rep, PACE): high-diversity libraries (yeast, ribosome, mRNA, mammalian), multi‑round selection, and quantitative affinity binning
• Liquid‑handling automation (Biomek, Lynx, Tecan), LIMS / ELN (Benchling)

At Prellis we integrate human biology with machine learning. We aim to revolutionize drug discovery by harnessing the power of the human immune system with tightly integrated machine learning to develop next‑generation antibody therapeutics with unparalleled speed, precision, and safety. We are committed to empowering our pharmaceutical partners with access to the most promising fully human antibody candidates rapidly identified from the human immune repertoire, enabling them to bring life‑changing treatments to patients faster than ever…