Associate Director, Expression Sciences (Protein Science)

Location: Spring House, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Company

Johnson & Johnson develops healthcare, Innovative Medicine, and MedTech solutions focused on preventing, treating, and curing complex diseases.

What you will do

• Lead, mentor, and manage scientists and associate scientists conducting high-throughput expression screening.
• Define the strategic vision, capacity, automation investment, and technology roadmap for the expression screening platform.
• Design construct and expression screening strategies for challenging soluble and membrane protein targets across bacterial, insect, mammalian, and cell-free systems.
• Automate workflows using liquid-handling robotics and laboratory information management systems to improve throughput, reproducibility, and data quality.
• Partner with discovery, Protein Chemistry, Biophysics, Structural Biology, and Therapeutic Area teams on screening plans, timelines, and risk mitigation.
• Oversee data interpretation, vendor and CRO relationships, technology evaluation, regulatory documentation, budget planning, and resource allocation.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Structural Biology, Chemical Engineering, or a related field, plus 10+ years of relevant industry experience; an M.S. or B.S. requires commensurately greater experience.
• Hands-on expertise in recombinant protein expression using multiple heterologous systems, including E. coli, insect cells, mammalian cell lines, and/or cell-free systems.
• Experience designing and executing high-throughput expression screening campaigns with automation and liquid-handling platforms such as Tecan or Hamilton.
• Prior people-management experience, including supervision, mentoring, performance management, and career development for scientific staff.
• Cross-functional drug discovery experience with Structural Biology, Protein Chemistry, Biophysics, and Therapeutic Area teams.
• Strong written and oral communication skills for presenting complex technical data to scientific and management audiences.

Nice to have

• Experience with membrane protein expression and purification.
• Experience managing external vendors or CROs for recombinant protein production.
• Familiarity with AI/ML-guided construct design, protein engineering tools, rapid screening strategies, or LIMS/database implementation.
• Scientific publications, conference presentations, or patents in protein science.

Culture & Benefits

• Inclusive work environment that respects diversity, dignity, and individual merit.
• Cross-functional work in a matrixed, fast-paced drug discovery environment.
• Commitment to accessibility and an inclusive interview process.
• Equal employment opportunity for qualified applicants.