Job Description

Xaira is an innovative biotech startup focused on leveraging AI to transform drug discovery and development. The company is leading the development of generative AI models to design protein and antibody therapeutics, enabling the creation of medicines against historically hard-to-drug molecular targets. It is also developing foundation models for biology and disease to enable better target elucidation and patient stratification. Collectively, these technologies aim to continually enable the identification of novel therapies and to improve success in drug development. Xaira is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and London.

About the Role

You will be responsible for advancing molecular screening platforms, protein engineering, and data-driven discovery methodologies in the context of antibody discovery workflows. You will play a key role in driving innovation across multidisciplinary teams and ensuring high throughput and efficiency in discovery biology efforts.

Key Responsibilities

Build and lead HT protein library benchmarking studies for antibody discovery. Evaluate libraries for quality and metrics, then optimize vector designs for library builds and evaluation.

• Method and Library Validation : Evaluate and validate new library designs through routine library benchmarking. Collaborate closely with Bioanalysts to quickly ensure library quality prior to discovery screening.

Design, qualify, and productionize high-throughput molecular product screening technologies for machine learning data generation and hit identification.

• Establish workflows for hit selection, isolation, and purification, reducing turnaround times for lead validation as processes are modified.
• Project management

Coordinate the synthesis, build and validation of design libraries. Ensure screening reagents, controls and assays are qualified and in supply prior to screening. Report on screening initiatives to establish baseline metrics, capturing issues to be addressed quickly.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration

Partner with bioinformatics, bioanalysts, and machine learning teams to integrate drug discovery with computational methods. Coordinate with screening teams to gate the delivery of qualified libraries.

• Mentorship and Training

Recruit, train, and mentor team members, fostering a culture of scientific rigor and growth.

• Data Generation and Analysis

Utilize cutting-edge methodologies to generate high-throughput data, enabling the development of nature-inspired protein targets and functional insights into library designs, builds and screening.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Synthetic Biology or related field
• 5-8+ years of industry experience in large molecule hit identification, with a strong focus on high-throughput screening, yeast and phage display, antibody discovery and engineering.
• Experience building and screening antibody yeast and phage display libraries is required.
• Proven track record of scaling systems for enhanced throughput and efficiency
• Strong background in large-scale molecular biology techniques, including phage and yeast display library builds and screening.
• Familiarity with bioinformatics and machine learning for data integration and target discovery.
• Excellent organizational and project management skills.
• Strong leadership and mentorship experience, with a track record of training and guiding junior researchers.
• Proven ability to collaborate effectively across multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience establishing and managing lab infrastructure from scratch.
• Expertise in developing workflows for hit validation, isolation, and purification.
• Prior work in metagenomics and protein engineering pipelines.

Compensation

We offer a competitive compensation and benefits package, seeking to provide an open, flexible, and friendly work environment to empower employees and provide them with a platform to develop their long-term careers. A Summary of Benefits is available for all applicants. We offer a competitive package that includes base salary, bonus, and equity. The base pay range for this position is expected to be $130,000 - $160,000 annually; however, the base pay offered may vary depending on the market, job-related knowledge, skills and capabilities, and experience.

Xaira Therapeutics is an equal-opportunity employer. We believe that our strength is in our differences. Our goal to build a diverse and inclusive team began on day one, and it will never end.

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