Scientist, Discovery Therapeutics (Contract)

Omega Therapeutics is a development-stage biotechnology company pioneering the first systematic approach to use mRNA therapeutics as programmable epigenetic medicines by leveraging its OMEGA Epigenomic Programming™ platform. The OMEGA™ platform harnesses the power of epigenetics, the mechanism that controls gene expression and every aspect of an organism's life from cell genesis, growth and differentiation to cell death. The OMEGA platform enables control of fundamental epigenetic processes to correct the root cause of disease by returning aberrant gene expression to a normal range without altering native nucleic acid sequences. Omega’s engineered, modular, and programmable mRNA-encoded epigenetic medicines, Omega Epigenomic Controllers™, target specific intervention points amongst the thousands of  mapped and validated novel DNA-sequence-based epigenomic loci to durably tune single or multiple genes to treat and cure disease through Precision Genomic Control™. Omega is currently advancing a broad pipeline of development candidates spanning a range of disease areas, including oncology, regenerative medicine, multigenic diseases including immunology, and select monogenic diseases.

About the Role:

Omega Therapeutics, Inc. is seeking highly motivated (Contract) Scientist specialized in protein engineering to join our Discovery Therapeutics team to develop and advance our transcription modulation Controllers, from early development to proof-of-concept and beyond. The successful candidate must be a scientifically motivated self-starter, capable of working with minimal supervision, conducting and critically analyzing experiments. The successful candidate will collaborate with senior project scientists and other research associates to design and complete in vitro proof-of-concept and in vivo translational studies on aggressive timelines.

We are looking for enthusiastic, detail oriented and highly motivated individuals with a passion for bringing novel medicines to patients and who are comfortable working on a fast-paced scientific team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Protein engineering (rational design and library approaches) to improve the functionality and developability of novel biologics modalities, specifically regarding epigenetic effectors
• Innovate, drive and oversee the design, production and characterization of bifurcated proteins and other biologic molecules of interest
• Design, procurement and maintenance of a plasmid library for Omega Controllers
• Work with effector and/or DNA-binding domains to identify and characterize Omega Controllers
• Expression and functional characterization of novel biologics modalities using various cell systems and techniques (cell-based assays, RNA/DNA/protein isolation techniques, ELISA/HTRF/western blots, PCR, qPCR, ChIP-qPCR, ChIP-seq, and other genomics techniques as necessary, etc.)
• Characterization of novel biologics modalities at biochemical, biophysical and cellular levels
• Identification and management of external partners (CROs, CMOs, etc.)

 Required Qualifications:

• Ph.D. or equivalent in biochemistry, molecular or structural biology, or related disciplines with 2+ years of relevant experience in biotech/pharma
• Strong background in protein structure/function with hands-on experience in protein engineering/optimization
• Extensive experience in gene design, vector construction, and protein expression
• Possession of strong communication skills, both written and verbal, to clearly convey results and scientific data to senior leaders, teams, and partners 
• Highly motivated strong team player who enjoys working in a fast-paced, inclusive, ethical, team-oriented, multidisciplinary environment of a small biotech