Associate Scientist II (Contract), Research

Join our Mission to Protect Humankind!

Vaxcyte is a clinical-stage vaccine innovation company engineering high-fidelity vaccines to protect humankind from the consequences of bacterial diseases, which have serious and costly health consequences when left unchecked. Working to eradicate or treat bacterial infections such as invasive pneumococcal disease, Group A Strep, and Shigella is just the beginning. Our path to success is clear and well-defined, and Vaxcyte is set up to go the distance.

WHAT we do is every bit as important as HOW we do it! Our work together is guided by four enduring core values:

• RETHINK CONVENTION: We bring creative and intellectual diversity to every facet of the work we do in order to innovate and re-innovate the way vaccines are delivered.
• AIM HIGH: We embody our collectively audacious goal to courageously make the most complex biologics ever attempted to protect humankind.
• LEAD WITH HEART: Everyone leads at Vaxcyte with a kindness-first, inclusive approach to collaboration and vigorous debate that advances our business objectives.
• MODEL EXCELLENCE: The magnitude of our challenge requires our shared commitment to demonstrating integrity, accountability, equality and clarity across communications and decision making.

Summary:

Vaxcyte’s Research team uses a broad palette of chromatographic tools to purify diverse vaccine antigens. Applicants must have practical, hands-on experience with multiple chromatographic modalities (not limited to monoclonal antibody/Protein A workflows). Experience should include selection, screening, development, scale-up and characterization of various chromatography techniques.

Essential Functions:

• Execute the following AKTA FPLC chromatography techniques:
• Immobilized metal affinity chromatography (IMAC)
• Ion-exchange chromatography (IEX)
• Hydrophobic interaction chromatography (HIC)
• Size-exclusion chromatography (SEC)
• Hydroxyapatite (CHT / HA)
• Designing chromatography trains to reduce host cell protein, endotoxin and aggregates using complementary modalities.
• Demonstrated DoE experience for multimodal optimization is a plus.
• Membrane chromatography for high-throughput contaminant removal or virus/VLP processing and as a scale-friendly polishing/scavenging step.
• Keep accurate and current records of development experiments and/or project related activities in an electronic laboratory notebook.
• Present data from experiments to the team and contribute to technical discussions.
• Work within a team environment and provides support as necessary to further the team’s initiatives.

Requirements:

• BS in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology or a relevant science considered, with minimum of 2 years of relevant industry experience or MS with minimum of 1 year of relevant industry experience.
• Experience with diverse protein targets, bacterial and eukaryotic recombinant proteins, small/large subunit vaccine antigens, fusion proteins, multimeric complexes, glycoproteins, and VLPs.
• The role requires demonstrated success with alternative capture/polishing methods and orthogonal cleaning strategies appropriate for potential vaccine antigens.
• Preferred experience with Cell-free protein synthesis system.
• Familiarity with automation or high throughput workflows such as (96-well plates) and UNICORN/AKTA software DoE integrations.
• Experience in process development.
• Strong interpersonal skills to collaborate well within the team and excellent written and verbal communication skills.