The posting
At Johnson & Johnson, we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions are personal. Through our expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, we are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity. Learn more at jnj.com.
As guided by Our Credo, Johnson & Johnson is responsible to our employees who work with us throughout the world. We provide an inclusive work environment where each person is considered as an individual. At Johnson & Johnson, we respect the diversity and dignity of our employees and recognize their merit.
Job Function:
Discovery & Pre-Clinical/Clinical Development
Job Sub Function:
Pharmaceutical Product R&D
Job Category:
Scientific/Technology
All Job Posting Locations:
Spring House, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Job Description:
About Innovative Medicine Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow. Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way.
Learn more at https://www.jnj.com/innovative-medicine
We are searching for the best talent for Senior Manager, Biophysics, Higher-Order Structure & Separations.
Purpose: We are seeking an experienced scientific leader to build and lead our Biophysics, Higher-Order Structure & Separations team within Cell Engineering and Analytical Sciences (CEAS).
This is a unique opportunity to create and advance a scientific capability that directly impacts how biologic drug candidates progress from late Discovery through Cell Line Development and into process and product development. Working at the intersection of molecular characterization, cell line development, analytical sciences, and manufacturing, this team will generate the insights needed to understand how molecular properties influence development success.
As biologic modalities become increasingly complex, successful development requires more than characterization alone. It requires a mechanistic understanding of how molecular structure, stability, heterogeneity, and intermolecular interactions influence expression, product quality, process robustness, and manufacturability.
As the leader of this organization, you will build and guide a team of scientists responsible for answering these critical questions and translating scientific understanding into improved development outcomes across a diverse biologics portfolio.
Why This Role Matters
The next generation of biologic therapeutics will require deeper understanding of how molecular properties translate into successful development and manufacturing outcomes.
This role offers a unique opportunity to build a scientific organization that bridges molecular characterization and biologics development. By combining biophysical sciences, higher-order structure characterization, separation sciences, and complementary mass spectrometry approaches, this team will help transform molecular understanding into actionable development strategies.
The successful candidate will shape a capability that not only characterizes molecules, but helps explain why they behave the way they do throughout development, informs solutions to complex technical challenges, and ultimately improves the probability of delivering successful therapies to patients.
The Opportunity
The Biophysics, Higher-Order Structure & Separations team will work in close partnership with Mass Spectrometry, Cell Line Development, Discovery, Protein Engineering, Process Development, and Analytical Sciences to provide a comprehensive understanding of therapeutic proteins from sequence through higher-order structure and molecular behavior.
Unlike traditional developability organizations focused on candidate selection, this team's mission is to support molecules that are actively advancing through development by generating the molecular insights needed to maximize the probability of technical and manufacturing success.
The successful candidate will establish a scientific capability that helps explain:
- Why certain molecules express more effectively during cell line development
- How molecular structure and stability influence product quality outcomes
- Which molecular properties drive aggregation, heterogeneity, or process challenges
- How higher-order structure and solution behavior impact manufacturability
- What risks can be identified and mitigated early to improve development success
The team's scientific contributions will directly influence cell line development strategies, process development decisions, product quality understanding, and overall manufacturing readiness.
You will be responsible for:
Establish Scientific Vision and Strategy
- Define and execute the scientific strategy for biophysics, higher-order structure characterization, and separation sciences within CEAS.
- Build a world-class capability focused on understanding the relationship between molecular properties and development outcomes.
- Serve as a scientific leader and trusted partner across Discovery, Cell Line Development, Process Development, and Analytical Sciences organizations.
- Evaluate and implement emerging technologies that enhance molecular understanding and accelerate decision-making.
Enable Cell Line Development and Manufacturing Success
- Partner closely with Cell Line Development teams to understand how molecular characteristics influence expression, clone selection, product quality, and overall development performance.
- Apply biophysical characterization approaches to identify molecule-specific liabilities and opportunities early in development.
- Generate mechanistic insights that inform risk mitigation strategies and improve likelihood of successful scale-up and manufacturing.
- Help establish characterization frameworks that connect molecular structure and behavior with development and manufacturing outcomes.
- Support scientific investigations that explain differences in development performance across multiple candidate molecules advancing within the same program.
Advance Higher-Order Structure and Biophysical Sciences
- Build and expand capabilities for higher-order structure characterization, conformational analysis, protein stability assessment, and aggregation investigations.
- Develop orthogonal analytical approaches that provide complementary information to structural and analytical mass spectrometry.
- Apply advanced spectroscopic, calorimetric, hydrodynamic, and separation-based techniques to understand molecular behavior.
- Establish deep scientific understanding of structure-function relationships and their impact on development and manufacturing.
Lead Molecular Characterization Efforts
- Advance protein separations and biophysical characterization capabilities supporting a broad range of biologic modalities.
- Characterize molecular heterogeneity, aggregation, fragmentation, charge variants, and other critical quality attributes.
- Integrate data across biophysics, separation sciences, and mass spectrometry to provide comprehensive assessments of molecule behavior and risk.
- Deliver high-quality scientific recommendations that support project teams and portfolio decisions.
Build and Develop a High-Performing Organization
- Recruit, mentor, and develop exceptional scientists.
- Create a culture centered on scientific rigor, curiosity, innovation, collaboration, and operational excellence.
- Develop organizational capabilities aligned with future portfolio and technology needs.
- Foster technical growth and establish the team as a recognized center of excellence in molecular characterization.
Qualifications / Requirements: Required
- Ph.D. in Biophysics, Biochemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Structural Biology, Bioengineering, Biotechnology, or a related scientific discipline.
- 6+ years experience in biologics discovery, development, analytical sciences, or related biopharmaceutical functions.
- Demonstrated scientific and people leadership experience.
- Deep expertise in protein biophysics, molecular characterization, and therapeutic protein analysis.
- Strong understanding of higher-order structure, protein stability, aggregation mechanisms, and molecular characterization strategies.
- Experience applying scientific insights to influence development decisions and resolve complex technical challenges.
- Proven ability to lead highly collaborative, multidisciplinary scientific teams.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
Preferred
Experience in one or more of the following areas:
- Higher-order structure characterization
- Circular dichroism (CD)
- FTIR spectroscopy
- Fluorescence spectroscopy
- Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)
- Differential scanning fluorimetry (DSF)
- Dynamic, static, or multi-angle light scattering (DLS/SLS/MALS)
- Analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC)
- Hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS)
- Advanced protein separation sciences
- Protein aggregation and stability assessments
- Molecular characterization of monoclonal antibodies, multispecific antibodies, fusion proteins, or other advanced biologic modalities
- Computational structural biology, molecular modeling, or AI-enabled characterization approaches
Johnson & Johnson is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by federal, state or local law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. Johnson & Johnson is committed to providing an interview process that is inclusive of our applicants’ needs. If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request an accommodation, external applicants please contact us via https://www.jnj.com/contact-us/careers , internal employees contact AskGS to be directed to your accommodation resource.
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Required Skills:
Preferred Skills:
Budget Management, Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Control (CMC), Clinical Trial Protocols, Drug Discovery Development, Industry Analysis, Interdisciplinary Work, Market Research, Pharmacokinetic Modeling, Process Improvements, Product Development, Product Licensing, Product Strategies, Risk Management, Scientific Research, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), Tactical Planning, Technical Credibility
