Senior Scientific Director, Protein Engineering

About The Role:
Senior Scientific Director, Protein Engineering provides scientific and strategic leadership for Neurocrine’s protein engineering and biologics discovery capabilities. Leads an established team of protein engineers and expands technical expertise and platforms to enable next-generation biotherapeutics discovery and development.

Your Contributions:
Scientific Leadership
- Lead and provide strategic direction for Protein Engineering; establish scientific priorities supporting the biologics portfolio
- Guide discovery programs from target assessment through lead generation, optimization, candidate selection, and transition into development
- Drive innovation in antibody and protein engineering technologies for novel/differentiated biologics
- Evaluate and implement emerging technologies, platforms, and computational approaches to enhance biologics discovery

Organizational Leadership
- Lead, mentor, and develop protein engineering teams; recruit additional talent
- Foster collaborative, innovative, inclusive culture promoting technical excellence and career development
- Build organizational capabilities via investment in new technologies/workflows/scientific expertise
- Establish and maintain collaborations with CROs, academic partners, and technology providers

Drug Discovery & Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Partner with multidisciplinary teams to accelerate biologics programs through IND-enabling studies
- Lead candidate selection, developability assessment, and optimization strategies
- Contribute to portfolio strategy/program governance using data-driven scientific recommendations
- Ensure protein engineering work aligns with timelines, quality standards, and objectives

Scientific Excellence
- Maintain expertise in protein engineering, antibody therapeutics, biologics development, and regulatory expectations
- Present strategy/program updates to senior leadership, governance committees, and external audiences
- Publish and support intellectual property generation

Requirements:
Required Qualifications
- PhD (10+ yrs) in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Protein Engineering, Immunology, Structural Biology, or related field; OR Master’s (20+ yrs); OR Bachelor’s (22+ yrs)
- Track record advancing antibody/protein candidates from discovery through candidate selection and IND-enabling development
- Extensive expertise in protein/antibody engineering and structure-function relationships
- Expertise in protein conjugation technologies, multispecific antibodies, ADCs, or other next-gen modalities
- Experience leading/developing scientific teams; building protein engineering capabilities/technologies/infrastructure
- Deep understanding of biologics discovery workflows (molecular design, lead optimization, developability, candidate selection)
- Strong skills in construct design, expression (mammalian/microbial), purification, biochemical/biophysical characterization
- Working knowledge of antibody discovery technologies (display platforms, affinity maturation, multispecifics, engineered scaffolds)
- Experience managing CROs/collaborations/partnerships
- Strong publication and/or patent record
- Excellent scientific communication to executives/governance/external audiences
- Ability to translate long-term strategy into executable research plans

Preferred Qualifications
- Experience developing therapeutic antibodies/biologics in neuroscience, endocrinology, immunology, inflammation, or related areas
- Computational protein design, ML-enabled protein engineering, or AI-assisted design
- High-throughput screening, protein display platforms, developability assessment
- Familiarity with LC-MS characterization
- Knowledge of regulatory expectations through IND submission

Application instructions:
- Apply even if experience/qualifications don’t exactly match the job description.