Sr. Scientist, Antibody Discovery and Engineering

The Role Moderna is seeking a highly motivated Senior 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. This Senior Scientist will be a hands-on scientific contributor focused on protein and antibody engineering, with particular emphasis on yeast display-based discovery and optimization.

The role will contribute to antibody discovery programs across oncology and autoimmune disease, applying experimental protein engineering from library and construct design through selection, characterization, optimization, and lead identification. The successful candidate will bring strong expertise in antibody/protein engineering, molecular biology, yeast display, library design, and experimental characterization. This individual will work closely with protein design, computational biology, structural biology, antigen design, and project teams to translate design hypotheses and computational outputs into experimentally testable molecules and libraries, and to use experimental data to guide iterative design-build-test-learn cycles.

This is a hands-on scientific role for someone who thrives in a fast-paced, innovative, and highly collaborative environment. The Senior Scientist will independently design and execute complex experiments, lead experimental work streams within discovery programs, contribute to scientific strategy and problem solving, and help advance differentiated antibody-based therapeutics toward lead nomination. Here’s What You’ll Do Contribute to integrated antibody discovery and engineering campaigns, with primary responsibility for experimental protein and antibody engineering work streams from design and library strategy through selection, characterization, optimization, and lead identification.

Design, build, and execute yeast surface display workflows for antibody discovery and engineering, including library design and construction, FACS-based selections, affinity maturation, specificity and cross-reactivity optimization, and multi-parameter lead enrichment. Partner closely with computational protein design, bioinformatics, structural biology, and antigen design teams to translate in silico designs, sequence/structure hypotheses, and model predictions into experimentally testable constructs or libraries, and to use experimental results to inform subsequent design cycles.

Apply molecular biology and protein engineering approaches including cloning, mutagenesis, sequence analysis, construct design, format conversion, expression, and purification across IgG, Fab, scFv, VHH, bispecific/multispecific, T cell engager, TCR engager, CAR-related, and other therapeutic formats. Characterize engineered candidates using biochemical, biophysical, display-based, and functional assays to assess binding, affinity, specificity, epitope diversity, expression, stability, develop ability, potency, and mechanism of action as appropriate.

Analyze yeast-display selection data, sequence and NGS datasets, and orthogonal characterization data to identify structure-function relationships, nominate follow-up variants, and support data-driven lead selection. Independently formulate hypotheses, design complex experiments, troubleshoot technical challenges, and adapt experimental approaches to address critical program questions and scientific risks. Evaluate and implement new antibody/protein engineering methods, display technologies, and…