Principal Scientist​/Lab Head, Biotherapeutics Discovery, Protein Sciences and Reagent Provision

Principal Scientist / Lab Head, Biotherapeutics Discovery, Protein Sciences and Reagent Provision Description

Boehringer Ingelheim is seeking a highly skilled Principal Scientist / Lab Head to lead a Protein Sciences and Reagent Provision team within the Biotherapeutics Discovery organization in Ridgefield, CT. In this lab-head role, the selected candidate will be accountable for the design, generation, characterization, and timely supply of high-quality protein reagents that enable antibody generation and support therapeutic concept validation.

This role will lead an interdisciplinary team responsible for producing soluble and membrane-associated antigens, species orthologs, engineered variants, tagged constructs, control proteins, and other fit-for-purpose reagents required for immunization, in vitro antibody discovery, screening, hit characterization, and lead optimization. The Principal Scientist will set scientific strategy, ensure operational excellence, and partner closely with Antibody Generation, Protein Engineering, Biophysics, Bioinformatics, therapeutic area partners, and external CROs to deliver reagents aligned with portfolio priorities.

As part of Boehringer Ingelheim, the successful candidate will contribute to the discovery, development, and delivery of innovative biologics for patients and customers. The organization’s global presence provides opportunities for international collaboration, increasing visibility and enabling meaningful contributions to the company's success. Boehringer Ingelheim recognizes that its strength and competitive advantage lie in its people and supports employees through a healthy working environment, meaningful work, mobility, networking, and work-life balance.

Competitive compensation and benefit programs reflect the company's high regard for its workforce

• Leads a scientific team responsible for the generation and supply of high-quality protein reagents to support antibody generation, including immunization campaigns, display selections, screening assays, binding characterization, functional profiling, and lead optimization.
• Defines and executes reagent strategies for diverse target classes, including soluble proteins, extracellular domains, integral membrane proteins, multi-pass membrane targets, species orthologs, engineered variants, mutant proteins, tagged constructs, Fc-fusions, biotinylated proteins, and assay controls.
• Oversees construct design, cloning, expression system selection, protein expression, purification, analytical characterization, formulation, storage, inventory management, and distribution of reagents to internal and external partners.
• Partners closely with Antibody Generation to ensure reagent quality, format, stability, purity, activity, and turnaround timelines are fit for immunization, phage and yeast display, high-throughput screening, affinity maturation, and downstream characterization workflows.
• Establishes and maintains robust quality expectations for protein reagents, including identity, purity, aggregation state, post-translational modification status, binding competence, functional activity, endotoxin level where appropriate, and documentation of lot-to-lot consistency.
• Ensures rigorous protein characterization of delivered reagents, including confirmation of molecular identity, purity, aggregation state, oligomeric state, and post-translational modifications using methods such as mass spectrometry and size exclusion chromatography.
• Builds scalable processes and governance for reagent prioritization, intake, feasibility assessment, delivery tracking, CRO oversight, and communication of risks, timelines, and tradeoffs to project teams and leadership.
• Applies current knowledge of protein biochemistry, molecular biology, structural biology, cell biology, and biotherapeutic discovery to troubleshoot challenging targets and recommend innovative approaches to expand accessible target space.
• Identifies, evaluates, and implements new technologies to improve reagent success rates, speed, throughput, quality, and data capture, including automation, digital workflows, computational design, membrane protein production approaches, and external partner capabilities.
• Serves as a scientific and strategic partner on project teams, contributing to target feasibility, reagent design decisions, antibody discovery strategy, data interpretation, and advancement of therapeutic concepts.
• Develops, mentors, and manages scientific staff; fosters a…