Here at AstraZeneca, you’ll have the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives every day. As one of the world’s premier pharmaceutical companies, our mission is centered on delivering life-changing products that advance world health and help fight and cure disease. As Fermentation Scientist in Bacterial Vaccines in Gaithersburg, MD, you’ll play a pivotal role in channeling our scientific capabilities to make a positive impact on changing patients’ lives.

The Bacterial Vaccines group within Early Vaccines and Immune Therapies at AstraZeneca is developing new and innovative vaccines against bacterial pathogens. We’re constantly pushing the boundaries of science to deliver life-changing medicines to patients, with a passion for discovery and a pipeline to show for it. We’re pioneering innovative research and exploring novel platforms to deliver vaccines against bacterial pathogens. We’re industry-leading in bacteriology, immunology, protein engineering and translational science. We offer an outstanding and strong collaborative network as part of the AstraZeneca family.

AstraZeneca has a dynamic environment that champions collaboration and innovation. We attract top minds, and we nurture and build top talents.

The Senior Scientist is responsible for leading the efforts within a multidisciplinary research group to design and develop fermentation methods to optimize expression levels of recombinant vaccine antigens. This position will involve hands on fermentation work to develop, scale-up and characterize microbial culture processes for research and development of bacterial vaccine antigens. This position will support one or more projects and will be required to present, publish, and work with our intellectual property team as a scientific leader.

Experience: A successful candidate will be a well-grounded critical thinker with demonstrated ability to design and implement experiments to improve fermentation yields of engineered and wild-type bacteria to optimize expression of carbohydrate and recombinant vaccine antigens. There is some flexibility in technical expertise for this position, but relevant experience is necessary in at least a few of the following areas:

Special Skills/Abilities:

• Bacterial and eukaryotic culture and expression systems for carbohydrate and recombinant protein expression.
• Bacterial and eukaryotic culture in shake flask and scale-up into single use and re-useable bioreactors up to 10L.
• Upstream process optimization to increase carbohydrate and recombinant protein expression in bacterial expression systems.
• Developing methods and SOPs for tech transfer from research to development
• Experience working on multidisciplinary project teams and supporting teams in a matrix management environment.
• Experience with bacterial bioconjugate vaccine expression is a plus.

The candidate must be an effective oral and written communicator with a track record of quality publications. In addition, the individual must be dedicated to maintaining high laboratory standards, good record keeping, with high regard for quality and safety and must possess good organizational and interpersonal skills in a highly interactive multidisciplinary team-oriented environment.

Job Complexity: The candidate will work with minimal direction, is encouraged to be an independent problem solver, generate high quality and reproducible data and will be required report this data at departmental meeting and at project team meetings.

Education: M.S. (5 -10 years post degree experience) or PhD (3+ years post-degree experience) in microbiology, biochemistry, biochemical engineering, biotechnology or related scientific discipline. M.S. (5 -10 years post degree experience) or PhD (3+ years post-degree experience) in microbiology, biochemistry, biochemical engineering, biotechnology or related scientific discipline.

Why AstraZeneca?

Make a significant impact to patients’ lives around the globe.

At AstraZeneca, we 're dedicated to being a Great Place to Work, where you are empowered to push the boundaries of science and ignite your Entrepreneurial ambitious spirit. There’s no better place to make a difference in medicine, patients, and society. An inclusive culture that champions diversity and teamwork. Always committed to lifelong learning, growth, and development.

Where can I find out more?

Follow AstraZeneca on LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/1603/

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Date Posted

12-Jan-2024

Closing Date

Our mission is to build an inclusive and equitable environment. We want people to feel they belong at AstraZeneca and Alexion, starting with our recruitment process. We welcome and consider applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of characteristics. We offer reasonable adjustments/accommodations to help all candidates to perform at their best. If you have a need for any adjustments/accommodations, please complete the section in the application form.

AstraZeneca requires all US employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 but will consider requests for reasonable accommodations as required by applicable law.