Senior Director - Antibody Engineering

Walker Cole International is exclusively supporting a rapidly growing, AI-native antibody discovery and design company in the search for an Antibody Therapeutics Expert. This is a fantastic opportunity to join the business during an exciting phase of growth, taking ownership of the antibody side of its therapeutic pipeline while partnering directly with the CSO to shape target, format and molecule strategy across immunology, cardiometabolic and CNS programs.

Your responsibilities as the Antibody Therapeutics Expert will include:

• Partner directly with the CSO and Program Leads to translate nominated targets and disease biology rationale into antibody discovery and engineering strategy.
• Personally design and lead the engineering of bispecific and multispecific antibody formats, selecting the right architecture for each program.
• Run discovery and engineering campaigns hands-on, identifying sequence-level liabilities and engineering solutions to resolve developability and manufacturability challenges.
• Take programs from early discovery through to development candidate, contributing to downstream CMC considerations where relevant.
• Manage and develop a small existing antibody engineering team, while remaining the hands-on technical authority on molecule design.
• Work closely with CRO partners on execution, ensuring design intent translates into deliverable, developable molecules.

The successful candidate will demonstrate the following:

• Significant, personal, hands-on experience discovering and engineering antibody therapeutics, including bispecific or multispecific format design.
• A strong track record identifying sequence-level liabilities and engineering solutions to developability, aggregation and CMC-related challenges.
• Experience managing a small team, while remaining personally close to the science and molecule design decisions.
• A genuine entrepreneurial, hands-on mindset, comfortable operating with pace and informality in a lean, fast-moving environment.
• Willingness to be on-site in Irvine, CA at least two to three days per week, or to relocate.
• Mandarin language ability is an advantage given the company's CRO relationships in Asia, though not essential.

Antibody Therapeutics Expert | Antibody Engineer | Senior Director Antibody Engineering | Director Antibody Engineering | Bispecific Antibodies | Multispecific Antibodies | Protein Engineering | Antibody Discovery | Developability | CMC | Biologics Engineering | Immunology | Cardiometabolic Disease | CNS | Antibody Design