Senior Research Scientist - Protein Biochemist, 12-month contract
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Type of Role: Contract position, Inside IR35
Contract length: 12 months
Location: Five days onsite - Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon
Department: Structural Biology & Biophysics

Looking for opportunities with purpose, impact and possibilities? Our client, Vertex, is a global biotechnology company that invests in scientific innovation. As they grow their pipeline at pace, they are strengthening their reputation for creating transformative medicines for people with serious diseases.

General Summary:
The Senior Research Scientist, Protein Biochemist is responsible for formidable experimental productivity and emerging creativity and versatility and will use their protein biochemistry expertise in the purification of challenging proteins to enable the study of structure-function relationships for disease-relevant targets using biochemical and biophysical disciplines for major research projects.
Demonstrates resourcefulness in running multiple activities concurrently, all related to achievement of goals/ objectives.
Adapts to new projects rapidly and to multiple projects effectively ensuring alignment with corporate goals.
The Senior Research Scientist commands a broad perspective and a deep knowledge of related disciplines, possesses diverse project experience and a broad panorama of (relevant) literature familiarity.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Design and execute strategies for expression and purification of complex proteins from bacterial, insect, and/or mammalian systems.
• Develop, optimize, and troubleshoot multi-step purification workflows.
• Purify and characterize challenging protein targets, including, multi-protein complexes, membrane proteins, fusion proteins and proteins with solubility or stability limitations.
• Perform biochemical and biophysical characterization of purified proteins using methods such as SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, aSEC, DLS, DSF, and activity/binding assays.
• Assess protein quality, purity, aggregation, stability, and functionality to enable downstream applications.
• Partner with structural biology, assay development, analytical, and discovery teams to deliver fit-for-purpose protein reagents.
• Maintain clear experimental records, analyze data, and communicate findings in team meetings and written reports.
• Identify technical risks and independently develop solutions to complex purification and protein handling challenges.
• Contribute to laboratory best practices, method standardization, and continuous improvement of protein production platforms.
• Performs advanced, complex experimental troubleshooting and methods development.
• “Multi-tasks” to a modest degree and effectively manages his/her efforts on multiple targets or themes.
• Innovate research methodology to a high degree, in order to address more important questions.
• Scours relevant scienti?c literature within ?eld and surveys broadly beyond own discipline/?eld.
• “Imports” new principles/concepts from other ?elds to develop useful new experimental approaches.
• Research external intellectual property relevant to Project(s) and areas of pursuit.

• Strong hands-on experience in protein biochemistry.
• Proven success in purification of complex proteins.
• Expertise in chromatography method development and purification troubleshooting.
• Experience with recombinant protein expression across one or more systems.
• Strong understanding of protein stability, folding and aggregation.
• Demonstrates astute understanding of how to deploy his/her own talents most effectively.
• Communicate effectively in verbal presentations and in writing technical reports.
• Demonstrates ability to solve complex problems to attain crucial Project goals.
• Ph.D. (or equivalent degree) in biological science and relevant post-doctoral employment experience, or.
• Master’s Degree (or equivalent degree) in biological science and relevant employment experience, or.
• Bachelor’s Degree (or equivalent degree) in biological science and relevant employment experience