Senior Scientist, Cell Therapy Discovery

Role Summary

Senior Scientist with a focus on Computational Biology applied to Cellular Therapy, Immunology, and Immuno-Oncology. Based in Gaithersburg, MD, USA. Responsible for developing computational models, designing experiments, and interpreting scientific data within the Cell Therapy Team.

Responsibilities

• Plan, conduct, and troubleshoot discovery research experiments independently.
• Assess and report data with an understanding of its implications within drug discovery; formulate conclusions and determine future experiments.
• Design, develop, and deploy AI-driven machine learning and deep learning models to extract knowledge from structured and unstructured data for new therapies.
• Provide technical instruction to the team and allocate administrative work where possible.
• Work collaboratively in a matrix environment.
• Prepare and deliver presentations within the Cell Therapy Unit and across other functions.
• Ensure own work and peers' work comply with internal AstraZeneca standards and external regulations.

Qualifications

• PhD in relevant disciplines or equivalent experience (e.g., Bioinformatics, Systems Biology, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Data Science, Computer Science).
• Minimum of 3 years of experience in Cellular Therapy, Immunology, Immuno-Oncology, Computational Biology, and/or Data Science.
• Proficiency in Python and/or R.
• Experience with UNIX-based systems, high-performance computing (e.g., SLURM), and large-scale data management.
• Expertise in omics technologies and processing large-scale biological datasets (e.g., single-cell/spatial transcriptomics, in-house data sources).
• Deep understanding of AI, predictive modelling, and statistical methods for training machine learning models.
• Hands-on expertise in T-cell functional characterization assays (in vitro cytotoxicity, proliferation, cytokine measurement, multi-parameter flow cytometry).
• Ability and motivation to drive projects to completion in a team environment.

Desirable Skills/Experience

• Experience in drug development in an industry setting.