Lead- Antibody Engineering

Garvan's Biologics Platform enables the design, engineering, and development of protein-based therapeutics across cancer, immunology, and rare diseases. This position will be a cornerstone of our protein engineering and characterization capability, ensuring that biologics candidates are optimised for potency, specificity, stability, and developability.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Principal – Antibody Engineering & Characterization will lead efforts to design, engineer, and optimise therapeutic antibodies and other biologics, applying state-of-the-art protein biochemistry, molecular biophysics, and structural biology approaches.

This role will:

• Develop and execute workflows for expression, purification, and biophysical characterisation of biologics candidates, including developability profiling.
• Employ and integrate structural biology insights to guide engineering decisions and support structure–function understanding of therapeutics.
• Collaborate closely with discovery teams, structural biology experts, and computational scientists to ensure rapid, data-driven optimisation of candidates.
• Build and refine the protein science capability within the Biologics Platform, including mentoring technical staff and contributing to platform strategy.

The position will work in a highly collaborative environment with the Head of Biologics and internal/external partners, contributing to both discovery-stage and translational programs.

Salary: Up to $160, % super + salary packaging (depending on experience)

Employment Type: 2-year fixed-term contract

SNAPSHOT OF BENEFITS

• Generous salary packaging to save you income tax on your wages thereby boosting your monthly take home pay (max. $15,900 general expenses + $2,650 meals/accom)
• Ample opportunities for on-going training and development
• Stimulating, diverse and highly international research environment
• Flexible work arrangements e.g. start / finish times
• 18 weeks paid parental leave for both parents including paid superannuation
• A range of additional leave types to meet your personal needs including cultural leave, conference leave, community service and study leave
• Discounted Health Insurance
• Lifestyle discounts with our community partners

WHAT YOU WILL DO

The key responsibilities include:

• Lead antibody engineering projects from concept through to characterised candidates.
• Establish and oversee workflows for mammalian expression, purification, and biophysical analysis (SPR/Biacore, BLI, DSC, DSF, SEC-MALS, mass spectrometry, etc.).
• Apply structural biology principles to enable design and optimisation, in collaboration with domain specialists.
• Interpret and integrate biochemical, biophysical, and structural data to drive engineering decisions.
• Guide the technical development of junior staff and contribute to the training of students.
• Actively contribute to project planning, timelines, and milestone delivery within multidisciplinary teams.
• Contribute to grant proposals and publications.
• Maintain high-quality lab records and ensure compliance with WHS standards.

ABOUT YOU

The key skills and experience include:

• PhD in protein engineering, structural biology, biochemistry, or related field.
• Mandatory prior industry experience in therapeutic antibody or biologics development.
• Demonstrated experience in antibody or protein engineering, including optimisation for stability, expression, or function.
• Proficiency in protein expression (mammalian systems preferred), purification, and biophysical characterisation.
• Familiarity with applying structural biology concepts to protein design, with ability to collaborate effectively with structural specialists.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work independently within a collaborative framework.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Track record of publications and/or patents in relevant areas.

ABOUT GARVAN

Garvan Institute of Medical Research is an independent Medical Research Institute (MRI) in Sydney, delivering scientific and clinical impact on a global basis and in partnership with organisations that share our vision. We are proud to be one of Australia's largest and most highly regarded MRI's.

Our vision is global leadership in discoveries to impact and our enduring purpose is to impact human health, by harnessing information encoded in our genome.

We seek to see our world-class discovery research achieve life-changing impacts, not only for individual patients with rare diseases, but for the many thousands affected by complex, common disease.

Garvan promotes a diverse workplace and is committed to the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging. We are always looking for culture 'add', not culture 'fit' and are building diverse teams with great sets of complementary styles and skills to help deliver our important work effectively.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply for this position, please submit your application with a CV and cover letter as one document, stating why you are interested in this role. We are reviewing applications as they are received. If you think you're the right person for this role, we'd love to hear how your capabilities, achievements and experience set you apart. Only applicants with full working rights in Australia are eligible to apply for this role.