Senior Protein Scientist/Antibody Engineer (12 month FTC)

At LabGenius Therapeutics, our mission is to discover the next generation of therapeutic antibodies by combining human and machine intelligence. We’ve pioneered the development of EVA™, a state‑of‑the‑art automated platform, enabling the closed‑loop discovery of high‑performing, non‑intuitive antibody designs using proprietary, ML‑grade datasets. For our wholly‑owned therapeutic pipeline, we’re using our closed‑loop discovery engine to establish a pipeline of highly selective T‑cell engagers and ADCs for the treatment of solid tumours.

LabGenius has raised >£55M and is backed by top‑tier investors, including M Ventures, Octopus Ventures, LG Corp, Atomico, Kindred Capital, Lux Capital and Obvious Ventures. The company is headquartered in London (UK) where we’ve established a cutting‑edge antibody engineering facility, staffed by a multidisciplinary team of more than 50 scientists and engineers.

You’ll be a pivotal member of the wet‑lab team, serving as the technical lead for antibody binding characterization. This is a high‑impact opportunity for a kinetics expert to not only execute assays but to build a world‑class antibody binding platform from the ground up. Your primary mission is to ensure that our ML models are fed with high‑resolution, high‑quality kinetic data. You won't just be running samples; you will be designing the workflows—using SPR (Surface Plasmon Resonance) and BLI (Biolayer Interferometry)—to transition our discovery pipeline from crude screening to clinical‑grade lead optimization.

You’ll be a member of our antibody developability team, ensuring that the "best" binders also possess the biophysical properties required to become successful therapeutic products. You won't just be looking at how well an antibody binds; you’ll be stress‑testing its "fitness" for clinical use, identifying liabilities like aggregation, instability, or poor solubility early in the pipeline. You’ll enjoy multi‑disciplinary work, and you’ll have an endless hunger for knowledge, learning, and growth; all the qualities LabGenius Therapeutics celebrates!

Your role will be varied, with clear communication being critical to your day‑to‑day interactions with the team. Being able to integrate your workflow with other teams, along with the ability to share findings in an articulate manner, will help you to achieve success within this position. This position is a full time laboratory‑based role, on a 12 month fixed term contract.

What you’ll do in this role:

• Design, implement, and "own" our internal antibody binding platform, selecting the best‑fit instrumentation (e.g., Biacore, Octet) to scale our characterization capabilities.
• Lead high‑resolution kinetic screening campaigns to determine kon, koff, and KD for large panels of antibody candidates.
• Execute complex epitope binning and mapping studies to ensure diverse target coverage and support intellectual property filings.
• Partner with the Lab Automation team to integrate liquid handling with BLI workflows, moving toward fully autonomous binding assays.
• Work closely with our Data Science team to translate raw sensorgrams into clean datasets for ML/AI predictive models, ensuring our in silico scoring is grounded in precise physical measurements.
• Design and implement automated biophysical screening assays (e.g., HT‑protein stability, solubility, and self‑association) using 96‑ and 384‑well formats.
• Analyse data from high throughput screening and work with our data science team to feed biophysical "wet‑lab" data into predictive models (ML/AI) for in silico developability scoring.
• QC analyse, interpret and troubleshoot developability experiments working closely with other R&D teams.
• Conduct research in a self‑directed manner, troubleshooting complex binding profiles (e.g., multi‑phasic binding or non‑specific interactions) to provide actionable insights to the engineering team.
• Keep excellent experimental/data records for cross‑functional teamwork and project learnings.
• Organise and manage your time effectively, balancing competing priorities based on business goals and the focus of your wider team, to deliver to timelines where others are relying on you.

What we’re looking for:

• You have a PhD in protein/antibody engineering, protein biochemistry, or an MSc with 3-5 years of industrial experience with significant wet‑lab expertise in protein characterisation techniques.
• Deep, hands‑on mastery of SPR (Biacore/Sierra) or BLI (Octet/Pioneer).
• You should be an expert in kinetic assay design, including sensor chip selection, immobilisation strategies, and regeneration optimisation.
• A proven track record of managing large‑scale screening campaigns (hundreds of samples per week) without compromising data integrity.
• Proficiency in data analysis software (e.g., Insight Evaluation, Scrubber) and a sophisticated understanding of 1:1 binding models vs. complex interactions.
• You have experience in thermostability assays (such as DSF), ELISA‑based techniques, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and analytical UPLC techniques (such as SE‑HPLC and HIC‑HPLC).
• You have a deep understanding of antibody structure‑function relationships and PTM liabilities.
• The ability to generate and implement new ideas, specifically in the context of setting up new lab infrastructure and automated workflows.
• You’re comfortable with challenging yourself and acquiring unfamiliar scientific skills and knowledge.
• Ability to articulate complex kinetic data to non‑experts, including computational biologists and stakeholders.
• You have excellent organisational and time management skills, with demonstrated ability to prioritise, define timelines and deliver to these commitments.
• You’re self‑motivated with a strong desire to make an impact, and bring a positive attitude to everything you do.
• Experience in a business context, working as part of a multidisciplinary team.

Nice to have:

• Experience with high‑throughput array‑based SPR (e.g., Carterra LSA) or BLI (e.g. Octet RH96).
• Experience characterising non‑traditional modalities like bispecifics, VHH, or scaffold proteins, and studying complex binding interactions that go beyond the 1:1 model.
• You are familiar with complex LIMS systems for data analysis and data integrity.
• You are familiar with open source software and bioinformatics tools to support protein production analysis.

What you’ll receive from us:

• Discretionary performance‑linked annual bonus.
• A generous stock option plan.
• 3x Salary Life Assurance.
• Income Protection.
• Private Medical Insurance, including dental and optical.
• Discounted gym membership.
• 25 days annual leave (plus the bank holidays).
• Paid sick leave.
• Employee Assistance Programme including access to coaching and CBT sessions.

Diversity & Inclusion: We believe that diversity makes for innovative, exceptional teams. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on gender, race, colour, religion or belief, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or any other protected class. If you don't feel like you meet every single requirement of this role, we still want to hear from you! We encourage you to apply, have a discussion with us about the role or others that we may have at LabGenius either now or in the future, together we can build more inclusive workplaces.