Senior Research Scientist, Analytical, Immunology/Cancer Biology

Kite is continuing to hire for all open roles. Our interview process may be conducted virtually and some roles will be asked to temporarily work from home. Over the coming weeks and months, we will be implementing a phased approach to bringing employees back to site to ensure the health and safety of our teams.

For Current Kite Pharma Employees and Contractors:

Please log onto your Internal Career Site to apply for this job

Job Description

The Senior Research Scientist I will be responsible for developing strategies to build and/or extend our capabilities to interrogate the structure and function of Kite's cell therapy products. In this role, the ideal candidate will have working knowledge of a diverse set of tools to enhance Kite's overall understanding of T cell health, fitness, and function to ensure delivery of a first in class cell therapy product that considers product efficacy and patient safety. They will work cross-functionally to identify opportunities for continuous process improvement.

We are seeking a talented and highly motivated immunologist, cell or cancer biologist to interrogate the T cell mechanism of action in order to further enhance our understanding of drivers of product efficacy. The successful candidate will have extensive knowledge of T cell biology, including mechanisms of T cell signaling, activation, differentiation as well as exhaustion. The ideal candidate must have expertise in multi-color flow cytometry and a broad working knowledge of immunoassays including, but not limited to, in vitro stimulation assays, population labeling/tracking, and single-cell analysis. Their work will focus heavily on aspects of immunology and T cell biology and incorporate 'omics' sciences like genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics to translate findings from complex data analyses into insights on the heterogeneity and mechanism of action of Kite's cell therapy products. Key accountabilities include leading cross-functional efforts to evaluate a diverse array of cell therapy engineering challenges related to manufacturability and product quality. The scope of this role will evolve and expand over time to include mentoring junior team members and working with key stakeholders to build and advance product characterization workflows to enhance product understanding.

Responsibilities and Duties

• Apply immunology, biology or cancer biology expertise to building and/or leveraging internal capabilities to enhance product understanding
• Lead multi-color flow cytometry panel design to interrogate immunophenotype and cell health of incoming and in-process material as well as final drug product
• Lead design of functional assays to assess cell fitness and mechanism of action of drug product in bulk and/or at the single cell level
• Work cross-functionally to design studies to interrogate T cell signaling via 'omics' approaches, e.g. scRNA-seq, RNA-seq, mass spectrometry
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior staff regarding concepts of immunology and T cell biology
• Lead cross-functional efforts to design studies that generate data to mitigate risks of potential impact to product quality
• Author, review, and edit technical documents, i.e. SOPs and/or reports, describing data analytics workflow

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Immunology, Biology, Cancer Biology or related discipline with 2+ years of industry experience and/or advanced degree (M.S.) with 8+ years of industry experience
• Advanced knowledge of Immunology preferred
• Advanced knowledge of multi-color flow cytometry panel design for immunophenotyping, intracellular staining and phosphoflow as well as working knowledge of various platforms (i.e. BD Canto, FACS Aria, CyTOF, Cytoflex, ImageStream)
• Experience with immunoassays, i.e. ELISA, MSD, Incucyte, Seahorse, luciferase reporter assays, etc.
• Bioinformatic experience, i.e. single cell sequence assays, genomics, transcriptomics, and/or proteomics assays, etc. is a plus
• Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office and data analysis software (i.e. Prism, JMP, etc.)
• Strong scientific writing and presentation skills
• Ability to think critically and demonstrate troubleshooting and problem-solving skills
• Highly collaborative with excellent interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills
• Self-motivated, detail-oriented, and willing to accept temporary responsibilities outside of initial job description
• Comfortable in a fast-paced small company environment with minimal direction

Kite is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative cancer immunotherapies with a goal of providing rapid, long-term durable response and eliminating the burden of chronic care. The company is focused on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T cell receptor (TCR) engineered cell therapies designed to empower the immune system's ability to recognize and kill tumors. Kite is based in Santa Monica, CA. For more information on Kite, please visit www.kitepharma.com. Sign up to follow @KitePharma on Twitter at www.twitter.com/kitepharma.

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For Current Kite Pharma Employees and Contractors:

Please log onto your Internal Career Site to apply for this job.