engineering
Posted Jun 8Wet Lab Protein Engineer (Selective Molecular Recognition)
On-site
Responsibilities
- Test assay environments with candidate protein variants "hits" at pilot-scale levels. Required
- Collaborate cross-functionally to translate engineered proteins into robust, scalable solutions for real-world applications.
Requirements
- The candidate will collaborate with the Computational Design Team.
- Qualifications Education: Ph.D. in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Bioengineering Biophysics, or a related field. (Candidates with an M.S. and 4+ years of high-throughput engineering will be considered).
- Experience with (or willingness to learn) biophysical characterization techniques (ITC, SPR, Fluorescence) to help interpret experimental data. Automation/High-Throughput Screening:
- Experience with high-throughput liquid handling robots or automated screening workflows. Demonstrated
- experience developing and running robust selection/screening assays (e.g., yeast/phage display, plate-based fluorescence, or cell-free translation systems).
- Bio-Interfacial Modeling: Knowledge of how proteins behave when tethered to solid surfaces (e.g., resin or silica).
- Wet-Lab Library Generation: Hands-on expertise in advanced molecular biology for library construction (e.g., Golden Gate cloning, Gibson Assembly, site-saturation mutagenesis, error-prone PCR).
- Protein Purification: Familiarity with affinity tag based recombinant protein purification using an FPLC.
- Process Scale-Up Support: Familiarity with commercial/industrial protein applications and scale up from laboratory- to pilot-scale.
- Who We Are Based in California, AeroVironment (AVAV) is a global leader in unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and tactical missile systems.
- Join us today in developing the next generation of small UAS and tactical missile systems that will deliver more actionable intelligence to our customers so they can proceed with certainty – and succeed.
- What We Do Building on a history of technological innovation, AeroVironment designs, develops, produces, and supports an advanced portfolio of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and tactical missile systems.
- Department of Defense and allied military services use the company’s hand-launched UAS to provide situational awareness to tactical operating units through real-time, airborne reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition.
Benefits
- benefits package including medical, dental vision, 401K with company matching, a 9/80 work schedule and a paid holiday shutdown.
- We are proud to be an EEO/AA Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability/veterans.
Contact
- For more information about our company benefit offerings please visit: http://www.avinc.com/myavbenefits .
- We also encourage you to review our company website at http://www.avinc.com to learn more about us. Principals only need apply. NO agencies please.
Additional details
- Worker Type Regular Job Description Position Overview AV and the AFRL Biological Materials and Processing Research Team are seeking a Protein Engineer to spearhead the directed evolution and screening pipelines of proteins for high-affinity ion coordination.
- This role will generate diverse protein libraries, develop robust high-throughput screening (HTS) assays, and isolate variants with selectivity and affinity for specific Rare Earth Elements.
- The core mission of this role is to produce and screen computationally designed proteins and use results to improve the next round of directed evolution.
- Additionally, this role will support the scale up of protein production and integration into pilot-scale commercial applications. Key
- Responsibilities Translate Computational Designs to the Bench: Serve as the primary bridge between dry-lab and wet-lab operations; take candidate designs, scaffolds, and libraries generated by the computational biology team and successfully translate them into physical, high-diversity protein libraries.
- Data Integration & Loop Closure: Analyze screening data to identify sequence-activity relationships.
- You will feed this high-quality experimental data back to the computational design team to validate their predictive models, troubleshoot failures, and guide the design of the next, smarter round of directed evolution.
- Assay Optimization: Continually refine screening pressures (pH, competing transition metals, lanthanide concentrations) to ensure the assay environment accurately reflects industrial bio-purification conditions.
- Technical Expertise: High-throughput Recombinant protein production in E.
- Coli and/or possible yeast surface display Citizenship: U.S.