Associate Director – RNA Screening & Assay Development

g, and implementing innovative HTS strategies and assay methodologies to characterize several RNA modalities. Your leadership will ensure that our screening and assay development processes are at the cutting edge, integrating novel technologies and approaches to enhance throughput, and precision, maximizing cellular expression, reducing immunogenicity, and predictive translation to in vivo models.

Your invaluable expertise will guide the team in navigating the complexities of RNA biology, with a particular emphasis on understanding and manipulating RNA sequence-structure-function relationships to unveil new therapeutic opportunities. By fostering a culture of scientific excellence and collaboration, you will enable and coordinate the execution of workflows to turn large screening data sets and campaigns into critical biological insights that support Ginkgo's mission to revolutionize the engineering of biology.

The Associate Director for RNA Screening & Assay Development is not just a technical on-site role at our Seaport location but also a strategic one. This role requires a visionary approach to aligning scientific objectives, designing decision-enabling experiments and screens, and delivering on milestones with the organization's broader goals. Your efforts will directly influence the direction and success of Ginkgo's projects in RNA therapeutics, shaping the future of how we tackle some of the world's most pressing health challenges.

In this capacity, you will interact and coordinate closely with cross-functional multi-disciplinary teams, contributing to a cohesive strategy that integrates HTS and assay development into the broader context of RNA therapeutic development. Your leadership will ensure that Ginkgo remains at the forefront of innovation, continuously advancing our capabilities to design, test, and refine the next generation of RNA-based treatments. Internal Title is a Senior Mammalian Engineer 2

Responsibilities:

• Science (Assay Development):
  • Provide expert guidance in designing high-throughput screening and assay development projects, focusing on RNA modalities.
  • Collaborate with our design, IVT, Omics, and NGS teams to develop and implement molecular, cellular, and protein detection strategies for RNA-based medicines.
  • Utilize biochemical, cell pharmacology, and ex vivo approaches to design and optimize assays for RNA sequence-structure-function relationships.
  • Account for the impact of various biological and technical conditions on assays, ensuring robust and scalable methodologies.
  • Lead the development, optimization, and validation of new assays, ensuring they meet high-throughput requirements and deliver reliable, reproducible, predictive data.
• Science (Screen Execution):
  • Guide and coordinate members of the team to execute screens in high-throughput using a suite of automated instruments and integrated workcells, including liquid handlers, microplate readers, HCI, Flow Cytometry, high to mid-dimensional screens, and others, working in high-density microplate formats (384- and 1536-well plates)
  • Coordinate with Core and Operations teams to support their work in Screen Execution
• Software:
  • Use a variety of software packages and write scripts for programming liquid handlers (in-house and third-party tools), designing and viewing DNA sequences, processing data, and performing statistical analysis (Spotfire, Python, JMP) laboratory information management system (LIMS), database management (in-house and third-party tools), and third-party lab instrumentation and automation software
• Data science, data management, and statistical analysis:
  • Use Spotfire to analyze and apply advanced statistical techniques to assay development experiments and executed high-throughput screens, and upload these results in a structured, standardized format into company databases
  • Build robust applications capable of managing complex, large volumes of data resulting in new biological insights.
  • Apply statistical Design of Experiment principles to design assay optimization experiments and analyze the results to identify optimal conditions for future experiments and screens
• Project scoping/planning/sales
  • Work with Commercial, BD, and Internal scientific subject matter experts in planning and scoping new projects, meet with potential and current customers to understand their needs, and propose both standardized and bespoke solutions to their problems, review proposals, and plan project timelines in alignment with customer requirements and milestone deadlines
• Project leadership
  • Within a project, lead a multi-disciplinary group of assay development and screen execution scientists across functions, including planning and designing experiments, delegating tasks, and being accountable for on-time delivery of results
  • Work collaboratively with the project leader to coordinate the inputs and outputs of high throughput screening work on the project, including technical strategy, timeline, and presentation of results internally and externally
• Project management:
  • Work with the project leaders to coordinate on strategic elements of the project that may impact, but are not necessarily within the scope of work of, HTS. This can include strategic components of genetic design, synthesis, purification, analytical, scale-up, and in vivo testing of RNA modalities.
  • May serve as project lead for internal development projects or projects that heavily lean on HTS capabilities
• Communication:
  • Communicate to a broad range of stakeholders, including providing detailed technical communications to scientific stakeholders and high-level, abstracted, accessible communications to leadership, executive, and external audiences, including customers

Minimum Requirements:

• Ph.D. or equivalent experience in molecular biology, cell biology, synthetic biology, or RNA related field
• 6+ years of research experience post-PhD
• Direct experience and technical leadership in projects investigating RNA sequence-structure-function relationships in the context of translation, stability, catalysis, interference, or any other RNA process
• 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 through collaboration and leveraging indirect reporting relationships in a matrixed environment.
• Strong cellular 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

Preferred Capabilities and Experience:

• 3+ years of industry experience in RNA biology preferred
• 3+ years of industry experience with HTS, Assay Dev, or leading a target through Hit ID, characterization, optimization, and clinical candidate submission.
• Direct experience and technical leadership in generating and screening large libraries of RNA elements to elucidate sequence-structure-function relationships between those elements and RNA processes (ie, catalysis, translation, stability, interference, etc.)
• Ability to effectively interface with custom and commercial LIMS systems and utilize software tools for sample and project workflow management.
• Established capability to design, conduct, optimize, and execute novel assay development efforts in the lab supporting HTS and project deliverables.
• Experience using laboratory automation equipment
• Experience in computational analysis of biological data and large data sets using general-purpose programming languages (such as Python, R, or Matlab)
• Familiarity with software and statistical platforms for documenting (ELN) and analyzing large data sets (e.g., JMP, Spotfire, or MODDE pro/DoE)

#LI-MB1

To learn more about Ginkgo, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com/press/ or check out some curated press below:

• What is it really like to take your company public via a SPAC? One Boston biotech shares its journey (Fortune)
• Ginkgo Bioworks resizes the definition of going big in biotech, raising $2.5B in a record SPAC deal that weighs in with a whopping $15B-plus valuation (Endpoints News)
• Ginkgo Bioworks CEO on scaling up Covid-19 testing: 'If we try, we can win' (CNBC)
• Ginkgo raises $70 million to ramp up COVID-19 testing for employers, universities (Boston Globe)
• Ginkgo Bioworks Redirects Its Biotech Platform to Coronavirus (Wall Street Journal)
• Ginkgo Bioworks Provides Support on Process Optimization to Moderna for COVID-19 Response (PRNewswire)
• The Life Factory: Synthetic Organisms From This $1.4 Billion Startup Will Revolutionize Manufacturing (Forbes)
• Synthetic Bio Pioneer Ginkgo Raises $290 Million in New Funding (Bloomberg)
• Ginkgo Bioworks raises $350 million fund for biotech spinouts (Reuters)
• Can This Company Convince You to Love GMOs? (The Atlantic)

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, employment applicants, and EOE disability/vet.

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