Director, Antibody Discovery

Department: Lab Science

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: San Mateo, CA

Description

Key Responsibilities

• Lead BigHat’s antibody discovery and display functions, setting the scientific, technical, and strategic direction
• Oversee the routine execution of display-based selection campaigns to enhance and diversify affinity, developability, and function across diverse antibody formats and antigen types in support of BigHat and BigHat-partnered therapeutic programs
• Manage and mentor a team of scientists responsible for antibody library design, generation, screening, selection, and early optimization
• Shape and expand BigHat’s antibody discovery technologies and capabilities, including new display and selection methods, library design strategies, and technical approaches that leverage and enhance the company’s integrated experimental and computational platform
• Provide scientific leadership across discovery and early optimization efforts, ensuring antibodies emerging from selections possess strong functional and developability characteristics
• Work closely with leaders in Protein Sciences, Data Science/Machine Learning, Engineering, and Platform groups to ensure seamless progression from discovery through characterization and optimization
• Collaborate with biology and therapeutic research leads to ensure display outputs align with and advance program objectives
• Foster a collaborative and high-performance culture within the discovery organization

Skills Knowledge and Expertise

• Ph.D. in molecular biology, biochemistry, protein engineering, or related discipline with 10+ years of experience in antibody discovery and engineering within academia, biotechnology, or pharmaceutical industries
• 5+ years of managerial experience leading scientific teams
• Strong expertise with protein display systems such as yeast, phage, mammalian, or mRNA display
• Demonstrated experience with antibody library design, construction, screening, and selection analysis
• Deep understanding of antibody structure-function relationships and mechanisms of antigen recognition
• Experience integrating antibody discovery workflows with downstream characterization and developability assessment, including functional screening and biophysical evaluation of antibody candidates
• Familiarity with computational or ML-enabled approaches to protein design and optimization
• Experience advancing biologics from early discovery through lead optimization stages
• Knowledge of diverse antibody modalities including multispecific antibodies, antibody fragments, and other advanced formats
• Strong leadership skills with experience building and mentoring scientific teams
• Strategic thinker capable of aligning discovery activities with broader company goals
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
• Self-motivated and comfortable working in a fast-paced startup environment
• Must be willing to work onsite 5 days per week

Total Rewards

• Range of health insurance plan options through Anthem and Kaiser (monthly credit if benefit waived)
• Dental, and vision coverage through Guardian
• Additional well-being benefits through Nayya, OneMedical, Wagmo, Rula, and more
• 401(k) with company match
• DTO, two weeks of company-wide shutdown, and 12 company holidays
• Paid parental leave