Special Projects Lead - AI Protein Design

About Us:

Ridge Biotechnologies enables the development and construction of the next generation of precision medicines through enzyme and targeted therapeutic design. Using our powerful experimental and computational platform built on large datasets generated by cell-free synthesis, biorthogonal chemistries, and ever-improving machine learning models, Ridge Bio is developing new medicines and scalable production methods that enable our partners to bring lifesaving biotherapeutics to patients in need.

Ridge Bio's founders are industry veterans who have previously built successful biotechnology companies and academic leaders from top institutions including Stanford and Caltech with world-leading expertise in cell-free systems, therapeutic development, and protein engineering. We are backed by Sutter Hill Ventures, a quiet powerhouse that has been building successful companies since 1962 by focusing on bringing together great people to solve hard technological problems in big markets. Our company culture is dedicated to intellectual integrity, service ownership, and creative impact.

Role Description:

We are looking for an experienced protein designer with world-leading expertise in wet-lab and computational techniques to rapidly develop and optimize proteins with new functions. You'll make fundamental contributions to the company's scientific strategy and work together with other brilliant scientists with complementary sets of expertise to solve challenging problems at the intersection of enzyme design, biochemistry, and therapeutic development using high-throughput experimentation and machine learning-driven protein engineering. An appetite for taking on new challenges and techniques, working and organizing projects across disciplines, and a pragmatic approach to protein engineering are a must. You will take on challenging projects in protein design by standing up computational pipelines and experimental workflows as you work to develop enzyme systems with high economic and societal impact. As we grow, you'll continue to shape the company's direction, scope and execute new projects, and mentor and train scientists throughout the company.

Required Qualifications:

• Completed a PhD degree in a relevant field (biophysics, computer science, biochemistry, applied mathematics, computational biology, bioinformatics, protein design, chemical engineering, or related discipline).
• A recognized expert in computational protein engineering and the practical application of machine learning methods to large protein sequence and function datasets.
• Demonstrated ability and interest in independently conceptualizing, booting up, implementing, and reporting out on both computational protein design programs as well as new experimental methods in an interdisciplinary, flexible, and fast-paced environment.
• Direct experience using latest protein design methods such as RFDiffusion, AlphaFold, Rosetta, MPNN, and ESM for computational design of protein therapeutics (such as antibodies, nanobodies, gene therapies, or enzymes), preferably in an industry setting.
• Highly fluent in protein production workflows in using several host organisms from cloning to FPLC-based purification to biophysical/functional analytics.
• Strong expertise and experience in protein visualization/design software tools as well as the precise design and construction and analysis of protein libraries using complex molecular biology techniques.
• Ability to work full-time hours at our Bay Area location and occasional flexibility to complete time-sensitive projects.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Direct experience with experimental methods for protein engineering including cell-free synthesis, protein display, microfluidics, and high-throughput expression.
• Strong expertise in designing libraries for and rigorously analyzing barcoded Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) sequencing readouts.
• Experience setting up laboratory automation for high-throughput screening.
• Demonstrated success in identifying and working collaboratively with clients and partners to scope and deliver on complex scientific projects.
• Experience mentoring and training researchers in a protein engineering or machine learning team.

How you'll contribute:

• Rapidly stand-up, develop, benchmark, and apply various computational protein design and high-throughput experimental workflows for applications in therapeutic development and manufacturing.
• Fine-tune and implement machine learning models to identify and generate protein sequences with desired functions using large datasets.
• Spearhead the development and filing of intellectual property on new protein engineering pipelines and discovered proteins.
• Use computational methods to design large DNA libraries encoding desired protein variants and analyze large datasets, including NGS data.
• Mentor and train junior team members in developing and applying computational protein design methods.
• Drive the development, documentation, and adoption of new computational and experimental protein engineering workflows throughout our team.
• Accelerate the development, production, and analysis of cutting-edge therapeutic modalities.
• Independently scope out and implement internal and partnership-based technology development projects.
• Build our sequence-function database used for training and continuous improvement of our libraries designs.
• Work with our team to develop and define the company's technical development roadmap to meet urgent customer and patient needs.

We offer a strong benefits package, competitive compensation, and an opportunity to work collaboratively with a top-notch team with diverse skillsets to solve challenging problems with wide impact in therapeutics. If you are a master at your craft of computational and experimental protein design and are looking to apply your skills to challenging and relevant problems as part of a fast-paced, team-based, and entrepreneurial environment then this job is for you!