Ginkgo’s mission is to make biology easier to engineer. We are constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world to answer the globe’s growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our bioengineers make use of an in-house automated foundry for designing and building new organisms.
Ginkgo is continuously crossing new frontiers of biological engineering, and we have a record of delivering to our partners what was (until recently) thought impossible. Now, our expansion into mammalian cell engineering promises to push our boundaries even further, and so we’re looking for curious, creative, and driven pioneers in this field.
We’re searching for a remarkable Program Director to lead programs to deliver success to our partners in viral gene therapy. A successful applicant, you understand how to deploy various toolkits including protein engineering, genetics, NGS, cell engineering, and high-throughput screening approaches to overcome challenges in gene therapy. This could include challenges in AAV, adenoviral, and/or lentiviral manufacturing, tropism, transgene design. It could also include experience with vectorizing other viral platforms. This deep technical understanding should enable you to offer technical solutions to potential partners’ challenges and then work to deliver those solutions. Your demonstrated experience managing interdisciplinary teams to deliver technical milestones on timelines is a requirement. As a driven and organized team member, you are flexible and able to re-prioritize with the changing demands of a fast-paced environment. The Program Director role is integral to the continued growth of our Mammalian Foundry team.
Please note: this role could be based in either our Seaport or Cambridge locations, but requires some flexibility to occasionally be present at the other location.
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Responsibilities
- Provide technical direction and guidance on viral vector development and manufacturing to your team to insure project success
- Support resource management and project planning across the broader project team
- Communicate project and team performance to leadership and external customers
- Identify and help develop new technologies to drive next-generation viral vector development
- Provide technical support, including scientific strategy and messaging, to Ginkgo’s Commercial Team, and directly interface with current and potential external partners
- Provide feedback on feasibility of various approaches to senior management and key internal stakeholders
- Grow, supervise, and mentor a small team of researchers working on gene therapy-specific challenges
- Coordinate efforts across interdisciplinary teams within Ginkgo’s foundry and 3rd party vendors
- Assist with shaping Ginkgo’s overall direction as a company and support its evolving needs, as necessary
Desired Experience and Capabilities
- PhD in biology, bioengineering, virology, or related field
- 5+ years of research experience post-PhD, with at least 3 years of industry experience in viral vector development
- Direct experience and technical leadership with tackling challenges in tropism, immunogenicity, manufacturability of viral vectors -- through program success, publications etc.
- Excellent project management skills, with the ability to oversee multiple projects simultaneously, meet deadlines, and collaborate with cross-functional teams
- Proven track record of leading successful teams and mentoring multiple team members
- Strong molecular biology expertise, with significant experience in mammalian cell culture and familiarity with next-generation sequencing technologies
- Ability to work with interdisciplinary teams in a fast-paced, high-growth environment
- Excellent communication and organization skills, with the ability to effectively convey project plans and complex technical information to a wide range of internal teams, executive leadership, and external partners
Additional Preferred Qualifications
- Deep experience with AAV gene therapy, a plus
- Ability to effectively interface with custom and commercial LIMS systems, and utilize software tools for sample and workflow management
To learn more about Ginkgo, check out some recent press:
We also feel that it’s important to point out the obvious here – there’s a serious lack of diversity in our industry, and that needs to change. Our goal is to help drive that change. Ginkgo is deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of its practices, especially when it comes to growing our team. Our culture promotes inclusion and embraces how rewarding it is to work with people from all walks of life.
We’re developing a powerful biological engineering platform, so we must remain mindful of the many ways our technology can – and will – impact people around the world. We care about how our platform is used, and having a diverse team to build it gives us the best chance that it’s something we’ll be proud of as it continues to grow. Therefore, it’s critical that we incorporate the diverse voices and visions of all those who play a role in the future of biology.
It is the policy of Ginkgo Bioworks to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants.