Principal Scientist

At Bristol Myers Squibb, our employees often ask, “Who are you working for?”—a question that fuels collaboration, accountability, and urgency in our work. Our purpose-driven culture inspires us to discover, develop, and deliver innovative medicines to prevail over serious diseases. We offer uniquely interesting and meaningful work, opportunities for growth, and a supportive environment that values inclusion, wellbeing, flexibility, and comprehensive benefits. This is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it.

We are seeking an accomplished Principal Scientist to advance antibody engineering initiatives within the Therapeutic Discovery Sciences Department on the Protein Engineering Team in San Diego, California. This is a laboratory-based position intended for a senior individual contributor who will be responsible for designing, executing, and interpreting experiments that inform early-stage research and contribute to the advancement of platform technologies. The successful candidate will also be responsible for developing new tools and reimagining existing technologies to support the creation of next-generation recombinant antibody therapeutics.
In this role, the individual will serve as the antibody engineering lead on discovery project teams, establishing technical direction and strategy for engineering initiatives from conceptualization through lead nomination. The position requires close collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of scientists, with whom platform knowledge, instrumentation, and technical expertise are shared. The individual will also engage regularly with colleagues in antigen design, structural biology, and computational biology. Success in this role is driven by technical expertise, sound scientific judgment, and the integrity and credibility of one's experimental work.
The ideal candidate will demonstrate strong bench leadership, exercise initiative independently, and perform effectively within a fast-paced, collaborative, and highly matrixed organizational environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a protein engineering representative on discovery project teams, owning the technical strategy for integrated engineering campaigns from early concept through lead identification, optimization, and nomination.

• Design, execute, and troubleshoot antibody engineering workflows, including affinity maturation, humanization, format conversion, expression, purification, and characterization.

• Engineer and evaluate IgG, Fab, scFv, bispecific, multispecific, and emerging antibody formats.

• Characterize antibodies using SEC, SPR/BLI, and related assays to assess binding and developability.

• Partner across Biologics Discovery, Structural Biology, Computational Biology, DMPK, Toxicology, and project teams to advance programs.

• Analyze complex datasets, identify risks, and develop mitigation strategies to guide decisions.

• Evaluate and implement emerging technologies, including AI/ML-enabled antibody design.

• Lead scientific discussions, present findings, and engage with external partners and CROs.

• Author protocols, study reports, and technical documentation to a standard suitable for regulatory submission, and maintain rigorous, timely records in electronic laboratory notebooks.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's Degree with 8+ years of academic / industry experience OR Master's Degree with 6+ years of academic / industry experience OR PhD with 4+ years of academic / industry experience.

• PhD in protein science, structural biology, biochemistry, or related scientific discipline.

• Hands-on expertise in antibody engineering, including design, expression, purification, and characterization of bispecific and multispecific formats.

• Direct experience with SPR/BLI, ELISA, flow cytometry, and other protein interaction and functional assays.

• Proven ability to design, plan, and execute experiments and troubleshoot complex problems independently, with the expectation of spending the majority of your time at the bench.

• Experience providing scientific leadership and influencing project decisions through technical expertise.

• Demonstrated impact through publications, patents, or advancement of therapeutic discovery programs.

• Strong collaborator with experience working across multiple programs, functions, and sites in a matrix environment.

• Excellent organizational, documentation, presentation, written, and verbal communication skills.

Preferred

• Experience with advanced antibody-based formats such as antibody-drug conjugates or multispecific-related approaches.

• 2+ years of biotech or pharmaceutical experience.

• Familiarity with antibody sequence analysis, bioinformatics, physics-based protein modeling, AI/ML-enabled discovery tools, or developability prediction platforms.

• Experience with biophysical and structural techniques such as X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, isothermal titration calorimetry, or multi-angle light scattering.

• Experience applying antibody discovery or engineering approaches in oncology, immunology, neuroscience, or other therapeutic relevant areas.

• Experience in neuroscience or prior experience as project lead in pharma or biotech setting

• Experience training or providing technical guidance to fellow scientists and research associates in a team-based laboratory setting.

#LI-Onsite

We hire for skills and capabilities, not just credentials – if this role excites you, but doesn’t perfectly match your resume, we encourage you to apply anyway.

The starting pay range(s) listed above is for full-time employees (FTE). You may also be eligible for additional discretionary incentive cash and stock opportunities. We determine starting pay thoughtfully – carefully considering the nature of the role, required skills, work location, schedule and the knowledge and experience you bring. Final compensation is guided by pay equity principles and applicable employment laws. Compensation programs are reviewed on an ongoing basis and may be adjusted over time to reflect evolving market factors, and individual, team or Company performance.

Benefits:

Subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable plans then in effect, you may be eligible to participate in our comprehensive benefit plans – including wellbeing support, retirement and financial protection benefits, and insurance offerings (medical, dental, vision, life and disability).

U.S.-based exempt employees are eligible for Flexible Time Off (FTO), which provides paid time off without a set accrual limit, subject to manager approval, along with 11 paid company holidays each year.

Non-exempt employees, RayzeBio employees, and employees located in Puerto Rico receive 160 hours of paid vacation annually for new hires (subject to manager approval), 11 paid company holidays, and 3 optional holidays.

Depending on eligibility, employees may also have access to additional time-off benefits, including paid sick leave, up to two paid volunteer days per year, summer hours flexibility, and leaves of absence for medical, personal, parental, caregiver, bereavement, or military needs. Eligible employees also enjoy an annual Global Shutdown between Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

U.S.-based job seekers can explore full benefit offerings at https://careers.bms.com/benefits

How We Work

Where you work matters – because collaboration, innovation and patient impact happen in many settings. Our roles are structured across four work models: site-essential, site-by-design, field-based and remote-by-design. The model assigned to this role is based on its core responsibilities. Learn more at https://careers.bms.com/ways-of-working.

Supporting People with Disabilities

BMS is dedicated to ensuring that people with disabilities can excel through a transparent recruitment process, reasonable workplace accommodations/adjustments and ongoing support in their roles. Applicants can request a reasonable workplace accommodation/adjustment prior to accepting a job offer. If you require reasonable accommodations/adjustments in completing this application, or in any part of the recruitment process, direct your inquiries to [email protected]. Visit careers.bms.com/eeo-accessibility to access our complete Equal Employment Opportunity statement.

Candidate Rights

BMS will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records, pursuant to applicable laws in your area.

For roles based in Los Angeles County only:  If you live in or expect to work from Los Angeles County if hired for this position, please visit this page for important additional information: https://careers.bms.com/california-residents/

Data Protection

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If this posting is missing required information required by local law or incorrect, contact BMS at [email protected]with the Job Title and Requisition number. Do not send application-related inquiries to this email. To check your application status, please login to your Candidate Home Account.