Director, GMP Manufacturing Cell Line Development – AbCellera – Vancouver, BC Full Time

Our team includes scientists, engineers, software developers, data scientists and business professionals working on drug discovery programs with leading biotechnology companies, global health organizations, and many of the top 10 biopharmaceutical companies. We partner with drug developers of all sizes to empower them to move more quickly, reduce cost, and tackle some of the toughest problems in antibody discovery. The ultimate goal is to help bring new therapies to patients faster, and our work spans therapeutic areas including oncology, inflammation, cardiovascular disease, pain, neurodegeneration, and more. Last year, AbCellera was named to Fierce Biotech’s Fierce 15 list, and received three Fast Company awards, including the Most Innovative Team of the Year for 2020.

Today, we’re able to discover antibodies and deliver them to our partners. But we’re not stopping there. We’re expanding our capabilities to include internal CMC development and GMP manufacturing of antibodies. This role, Director – GMP Manufacturing Cell Line Development, will be responsible for building and shaping the team and facilities to meet an audacious goal: to go from Discovery to fill-finish in a year. As a key leader within our newly created CMC organization, this motivated and independent individual is excited by the opportunity to build our new cell line development platform from the ground up. be. As you lead cell line development for therapeutic candidates that will be produced in our new GMP facility, you have a strong desire to support early antibody discovery work by developing ways to improve/speed the “discovery–through CMC development–to GMP manufacturing” paradigm. This individual will build our capacity to support our partners’ rapid transitions from target identification to clinical testing.

How you might spend your days:
Establish the strategy and lead cell line development for the organization

Provide a beginning-to-end solution for Cell Line Development from vector design and cell line selection to generating clonal cell lines for banking

Build and operate this critical component in our full-stack drug development platform to fully enable our partners

Work closely with AbCellera leadership peers to develop an innovative approach to CMC development that is closely integrated with the antibody discovery and antibody characterization teams

Training and mentoring the Cell Line Development Team

Evaluating new technology to improve and invent new processes. This includes a desire for leveraging data science and AI

Preparing regulatory documents and communicating with health authorities

Continuously drive improvements to the established processes, increasing speed and efficiency while meeting regulatory requirements

We’d love to hear from you if:
You are strongly self-motivated and are able to identify project needs and follow that up with building and implementing solutions

You are passionate about building dynamic new teams and capabilities that accomplish important goals

You are enthusiastic about applying your expertise in cell line development

You are an outstanding communicator and teammate

Required qualifications and experience:
A total of 10+ years of industry experience with a PhD in Molecular Biology, Biochemical/Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering or similar is required. Strong candidates with BS or MS degrees may be considered with sufficient Cell Line Development and leadership experience

Demonstrated experience in establishing and running best practices for Cell Line Development of monoclonal antibodies and other protein biologics. This includes knowledge of and experience with global regulatory expectations as they relate to cell line development

Demonstrated expertise in optimizing cell line selection for antibody manufacturing

Expertise in mammalian gene expression systems from vector selection to cell line development

Expertise and demonstrated experience in establishing automation and/or high-throughput systems

Experience in managing and mentoring a productive team of scientists

Demonstrated productive interactions with regulatory agencies and health authorities

Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work collaboratively as a member of cross-functional team

Excellent documentation and organizational skills

Superb verbal and written communication skills, including public presentation of complex data

About AbCellera:
At AbCellera, we’re solving tough problems and creating innovative solutions from the ground up. To succeed, we have created innovative solutions at every step – custom antigen preparation and immunizations, microfluidics, high-throughput imaging, genomics, computation, machine learning and laboratory automation – leaving no stone unturned and revolutionizing how scientists can explore natural antibody diversity and the scale at which they can do it. You’ll join a diverse and multi-disciplinary team of biologists, biochemists, engineers, bioinformaticians, computer scientists and physicists – all working together to bring better therapies to patients. This is life-changing research and you could be a part of it.

We’re a growing company with state-of-the-art discovery tools and the drive to be the best in the industry. This isn’t just about having the best technology. We know we need a world-class team of innovators working together to solve the toughest problems. We look for people with drive and energy. Idealists. People we love and people we trust. This may be unconventional, but it is the key to our success. We’re looking for someone like you to support and organize our efforts along the way.

To apply:
Please submit your application through our website and refer to Job ID 21155 . We apologize in advance, but we receive a large volume of applications and are only able to contact those who are selected for an interview.