Principal Scientist, Antibody Discovery and Engineering

The Role

Moderna is seeking an accomplished and highly motivated Principal Scientist to join the Antibody Discovery team within Therapeutics Research. Therapeutics Research generates innovative therapeutic concepts and advances them from early scientific idea through First-in-Human studies. The Antibody Discovery team plays a central role in discovering, engineering, and optimizing antibody-based therapeutic molecules that enable new treatment strategies across Moderna's therapeutic pipeline.

Moderna is seeking an accomplished and highly motivated Principal Scientist to join the Antibody Discovery team within Therapeutics Research. Therapeutics Research generates innovative therapeutic concepts and advances them from early scientific idea through First-in-Human studies. The Antibody Discovery team plays a central role in discovering, engineering, and optimizing antibody-based therapeutic molecules that enable new treatment strategies across Moderna's therapeutic pipeline.

• Lead integrated antibody discovery and engineering campaigns from early concept through lead identification, optimization, and nomination.
• Develop discovery strategies that incorporate target and antigen evaluation, immunization design, B cell screening, display-based engineering, sequence analysis, and data-driven lead selection.
• Design, execute, and oversee antibody generation and optimization workflows, including immunizations, B cell discovery, yeast or other display campaigns, affinity maturation, humanization, format conversion, expression, purification, and characterization.
• Engineer and evaluate antibodies across multiple therapeutic formats, including IgG, Fab, scFv, bispecific or multispecific antibodies, T cell engagers, TCR engagers, CAR‐T‐related formats, and other novel modalities.
• Characterize antibody candidates using biochemical, biophysical, and functional assays to assess binding, affinity, specificity, epitope diversity, develop ability, potency, and mechanism of action.
• Partner with antigen design, structural biology, computational biology, and project teams to move programs efficiently from scientific concept to actionable lead molecules.
• Analyze complex datasets, identify scientific and technical risks, and develop practical mitigation strategies that guide program decisions.
• Monitor emerging antibody discovery and engineering technologies and translate relevant advances into ideas that strengthen Moderna’s therapeutic discovery capabilities.
• Prepare clear technical reports, project plans, and presentations for internal teams, collaborators, governance forums, and leadership.
• Lead cross‑functional scientific discussions, manage external partners, and mentor scientists or research associates as appropriate.

• PhD in immunology, molecular biology, biochemistry, protein engineering, cancer biology, or a related discipline, with 5+ years of relevant post‑PhD industry experience in antibody discovery, antibody engineering, or biologics discovery.
• Demonstrated track record independently leading therapeutic antibody discovery campaigns from concept through lead identification, optimization, or nomination.
• Deep technical expertise in antibody biology, antibody structure and function, discovery platforms, and therapeutic antibody optimization.
• Hands‑on experience with immunization‑based antibody discovery, including antigen design, immunization strategy, B cell screening, single‑cell sorting, B cell culturing, antibody sequence recovery, and NGS‑informed repertoire analysis.
• Strong expertise in display technologies for antibody engineering, affinity maturation, specificity optimization, develop ability improvement, and molecular‑format…