Sr. Scientist, Analytical Development (Protein)

Company Profile:

Vaxcyte, Inc. (Nasdaq: PCVX) is a vaccine innovation company engineering high-fidelity vaccines to protect humankind from the consequences of bacterial diseases. The Company is developing broad-spectrum conjugate and novel protein vaccines to prevent or treat bacterial infectious diseases. Vaxcyte’s lead candidate, VAX-24, is a 24-valent, broad-spectrum, carrier-sparing pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV) being developed for the prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). The Company is re-engineering the way highly complex immunizations are made through modern synthetic techniques, including advanced chemistry and our exclusively licensed XpressCFTM cell-free protein synthesis platform. Unlike conventional cell-based approaches, the Company’s system for producing difficult-to-make proteins and antigens is intended to accelerate its ability to efficiently create and deliver high-fidelity vaccines with enhanced immunological benefits. Vaxcyte’s pipeline also includes VAX-31, a 31-valent PCV candidate; VAX-A1, a prophylactic vaccine candidate designed to prevent Group A Strep infections; VAX-PG, a therapeutic vaccine candidate designed to slow or stop the progression of periodontal disease; and VAX-GI, a vaccine program designed to prevent Shigella. The Company is driven to eradicate or treat invasive bacterial infections, which have serious and costly health consequences when left unchecked. For more information, visit www.vaxcyte.com.

Vaxcyte, headquartered in San Carlos, CA, went public in June 2020 and currently has a team of approximately 180 employees and anticipates continued, significant growth. Following equity offerings in October 2022 and April 2023, which generated over $1.1 billion in net proceeds, the Company’s balance sheet is further strengthened to advance its pipeline of novel vaccines, including VAX-24. These financings followed positive data readouts from Vaxcyte’s Phase 1/2 proof-of-concept study evaluating VAX-24 in adults aged 18-64 and Phase 2 study in adults 65 and older. The Company believes these results support a best-in-class potential for VAX-24, which was designed to replace the current standard-of-care in adults and children. VAX-24 is being investigated for the prevention of IPD, which can be most serious for infants, young children, older adults and those with immune deficiencies or certain chronic health conditions. Given the global impact of pneumococcal disease remains significant, the public health community continues to advocate for vaccines that can offer broader protection to prevent IPD. Vaxcyte’s PCV franchise, consisting of VAX-24 and VAX-31, is designed specifically to address this need and has the potential to deliver the broadest protection for this very serious disease. We believe that our PCVs could receive regulatory approval based on successful completion of clinical studies utilizing well-defined surrogate immune endpoints, consistent with how other PCVs have obtained regulatory approval in the past, rather than requiring clinical field efficacy studies.

Summary:

Looking for an energetic and talented individual to join our Analytical Development team. Primary responsibility for the incumbent will be to support the developmental activities currently on going in the laboratory as assigned.

Essential Functions:

• Provide strategic, tactical and technical leadership in the development of analytical methods for the purpose of characterizing drug product, drug substance, intermediates and critical raw material.
• Take on end-to-end responsibility of method development for characterization of proteins, bacterial polysaccharides, polysaccharide-protein conjugates, and adjuvanted vaccines product. Responsibility also includes resource planning, team productivity and timeline management of the deliverables.
• Drive analytical innovation and stay on top of cutting-edge analytical technology. Introduce and establish novel technology in house if necessary.
• Provide technical direction, mentorship and coaching to the analytical characterization team.
• Manage performance and development of personnel (2-4) to ensure achievement of organizational and department goals.
• Collaborate with Formulations and Process Development to provide analytical solutions for process understanding, troubleshooting and characterization.
• Author technical reports and analytical method.
• Cultivate a cohesive, innovative, nimble and productive team environment.

Requirements:

• PhD in Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Biochemistry, or related field with 8+ years relevant industry experience; MS or BS with 15+ years of industry experience in Pharma /Biotech industry required.
• Proven leadership skills.
• Outstanding organization and planning skills.
• Must be a strong scientific leader who can guide scientists with clear goals of developing analytical methods, and critically and skillfully review and assess analytical methods under development. May need to provide direction for troubleshooting various issues during method development.
• Proven track record of analytical development leadership for biologics and small molecules, experience with vaccines, carbohydrate, or conjugates is a plus.
• Extensive expertise in U/HPLC, CE, SDS-PAGE, mass spectrometry, and other analytical technologies as applied to protein analytical method development, trouble shooting and validation for GMP release and stability testing.
• Experience in protein characterization by using different analytical approaches, such as aggregates by SEC-LC, charge variants by AEX, HCP by CE-SDS, peptide mapping and intact mass analysis by LC/MS/MS, and protein quantitation by SoloVPE and other colorimetric assays.
• Attention to detail and excellent skills in record keeping / documentation. Critical thinking and ability to analyze data.
• Strong interpersonal skills; ability to communicate effectively both verbally and in written formats.
• Ability to work with minimum supervision in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment and collaborate effectively with other team members. Eagerness and ability to learn and understand new concepts with ease.
• All Vaxcyte employees require vaccination against COVID-19.

Reports to: Associate Director, Analytical Development

Location: San Carlos, CA

Compensation:

The compensation package will be competitive and includes comprehensive benefits and an equity component.

Salary Range: $152,000 – $170,000

Send resumes to:

[email protected]

Vaxcyte, Inc.

825 Industrial Road, Suite 300

San Carlos, CA 94070

We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status.