Poseida is looking for a highly capable and independent Senior Process Development Scientist to join our Process Development team to develop novel cell processing platforms to support Poseida’s allogeneic cell therapy programs. The Sr. PD Scientist will work to improve the current formulations and develop several innovative new formulations for cell and gene therapy products in constant pursuit of the best feasible way to deliver our proprietary technologies. The primary focus of this position is to lead the development and optimization of formulations during manufacturing processes with specific emphasis to harvest, filling, cryopreservation, storage, transport and thawing of drug products. The Sr. PD Scientist will be expected to develop, design, and take part in new platform technology evaluation and implementation. Position requires excellent communication and presentation skills, troubleshoot technical issues, and to work with automation instrumentation and software. This position is located at our headquarters in San Diego, CA

Responsibilities may include but are not limited to:

• Support downstream process development for allogenic cell and gene therapy projects with a primary focus on formulations
• Design, develop and/or aid in platform improvement studies such as development of novel formulations, cryomedia, freeze/thaw optimization, and fill/finish.
• Design and conduct studies to assess physicochemical stability of intermediate and final products during processing, freezing and storage.
• Evaluate new cryobiological technologies and modeling of the freezing processes and keep up to date with current research trends in the field of cryobiology for cell and gene therapy.
• Present research results at scientific conferences, author scientific reports and documents for regulatory filing.
• Work closely and independently with other functional areas to deliver on milestones while adhering to broad project timelines.
• Proactively analyze manufacturing issues and coordinate potential resolution with the CMC team.
• Provide leadership to junior team members.

Requirements, Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Ph.D. degree in Biochemical, Chemical, Biomedical, Mechanical Engineering or related scientific discipline with 5+ years of relevant industry experience (an equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered).
• Experience with immune cells, preferably CAR-T cells or primary cells, including culture, expansion, harvest, formulation and common immunological assays such as proliferation, flow cytometry, ELISA, and multiplex assays.
• Experience with development of cell and gene therapy drug product formulations.
• Experience in rheology of liquid formulations as well as cell-biomaterial interactions.
• Experience in development/qualification of operations such as freeze/thaw (Cryopreservation), formulation, filling, capping, visual inspection, packaging, and banking.
• Experience with biopharmaceutical product and process development, process-engineering, aseptic fill/finish operations and cGMP knowledge
• Ability to multitask, able to work independently and function within a collaborative environment.
• A willingness to think creatively, be creative and comfortable in a fast-paced small company environment with minimal direction and able to adjust workload based upon changing priorities.
• Must be physically capable of lifting twenty-five pounds.

Senior Process Development Scientist Salary Range: $122,000 to $152,000

The final salary offered to a successful candidate will be dependent on several factors that may include but are not limited to the type and length of experience within the job, type, and length of experience with the industry, education, geographic location, etc.

Who We Are and What We Do 

Based in San Diego, Poseida Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company utilizing our unique and proprietary genetic engineering platform technologies to create next-generation cell and gene therapies with the capacity to cure. We are passionate about making an impact on patients’ lives with the development of our CAR-T therapies in various cancers and gene therapies for rare diseases. Our goal is to deliver potential single treatment cures for patients in need. Our portfolio of product candidates is specifically designed to overcome the limitations of current generation cell and gene therapeutics.