Director, Protein Sciences

About Innovative Medicine

Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow.
Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way.
Learn more at https://www.jnj.com/innovative-medicine

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine R&D is recruiting for a Director, Protein Sciences. This position is a hybrid role and can be located in Spring House, PA or Cambridge, MA.

The Director, Protein Sciences will integrate target biology insight, computational protein design, cell engineering, and experimental protein sciences to drive the generation of high-quality immunogens and screening reagents. As a key member in the Antibody Discovery Group, this position will play a central role in evaluating novel protein targets, including mining and interpreting public-domain data, and applying innovative structural and computational tools to inform antigen design strategies and deliver reagents for hit generation campaigns.

The Director will contribute to multiple aspects of antibody discovery in a globally-integrated research environment, with responsibility spanning from early target assessment through reagent generation and discovery enablement. This role represents a critical function within a dynamic Biologics Discovery organization committed to delivering next-generation biotherapeutics to patients.

We are seeking a scientifically thorough and collaborative leader who can work across discovery teams to drive impact across a diverse portfolio of innovative drug concepts. Success will require the ability to operate effectively within a highly coordinated, fast-paced environment, while contributing both strategically and hands-on to program advancement.

Principal Responsibilities:

Target Assessment and Antigen Strategy

Lead evaluation of therapeutic targets, including:

• Structural, sequence, and domain architecture analysis
• Integration of internal and external data (literature, databases, structural repositories)

Define antigen and engineered-cell design strategies to support antibody discovery:

• Construct design and domain selection
• Epitope exposure and conformational state optimization
• Strategies for difficult targets (e.g., multi-pass membrane proteins) including Nanodisc technology and nucleic acid immunogen design

Protein Design & Engineering

Apply computational and structural biology approaches to protein design:

• Homology modeling, structural analysis, and rational mutagenesis
• Integration of emerging AI/ML-based protein design tools

Engineer proteins to improve:

• Stability and expression
• Functional relevance for discovery assays and immunization

Qualifications:

• A minimum of a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Structural Biology, Protein Engineering, or a related discipline is required.
• A minimum of 10 years of experience in biologics discovery or protein sciences is required.
• Demonstrated leadership experience within the pharmaceutical or biotech industry is required.
• Strong knowledge in the following is required: antigen design and generation for antibody discovery; structural biology and protein sequence analysis; biologics discovery workflows from target to lead identification.
• Experience or domain knowledge in Oncology, Immunology, and/or Neuroscience is preferred.
• People management experience is preferred.
• Must have excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Must be strategic with a strong scientific mindset.
• The ability to operate effectively within a highly coordinated, fast-paced matrix environment is required.