Scientist, mRNA/cDNA/Cell-Free Display

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and validate a cell-free display platform (cDNA display or similar) compatible with diverse binder formats
• Work with automation team to scale and automate the platform to enable routine, high-throughput screening against large panels of therapeutic targets
• Collaborate with ML and computational teams to ensure screening outputs feed effectively into model training pipelines
• Work with the protein engineering team to support discovery campaigns and affinity maturation as platform capacity allows
• Stay current on advances in cell-free display, laboratory automation, and computational protein design

Requirements

• PhD or equivalent experience in protein biochemistry, molecular biology, biological engineering, or a related field
• Hands-on experience with cell-free selection systems (cDNA display, mRNA display, ribosome display, or similar)
• Strong molecular biology fundamentals and demonstrated ability to develop and troubleshoot complex, multi-step workflows
• Experience with or strong interest in laboratory automation

Preferred Qualifications

• Track record of successfully automating complex laboratory workflows
• Background in therapeutic antibody discovery or protein engineering
• Experience with computational protein design
• Familiarity with how high-throughput screening data feeds into ML and computational pipelines
• Experience with complex or non-traditional binder formats and biochemical intuition to adapt selection workflows accordingly

Benefits

• Annual performance-based target bonus
• Stock options
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k) plan
• Flexible paid time off and holidays
• Perks including on-site gym, onsite lunch, and commuter support

About the Company

Manifold Bio is a platform biotechnology company pioneering AI-guided protein design and massively multiplexed in vivo screening to unlock tissue-targeted medicines and organism-scale models of living systems. Using proprietary molecular barcoding technology, we screen hundreds of thousands of protein designs simultaneously in living systems, producing in vivo-validated datasets at a scale no one else can match. The datasets power our computational models, which leads to better drug designs, creating a flywheel that gets stronger with every campaign. Our team of protein engineers, biologists, and computational scientists works across this full stack to pursue programs both internally and with leading pharma companies.