Senior Scientist, Production in Lausanne

About the Role This is not a lab technician position.

This is a senior scientist who owns assay quality, data QC and controls, and production troubleshooting across the entire experimental pipeline.

The production team runs 150+ experiments per month across expression, BLI, SPR, thermostability, and enzyme activity.

When something goes wrong (failed expression, anomalous binding data, instrument artifacts), this person diagnoses the root cause and fixes it.

As the assay and instrumentation portfolio expands, this person translates new R&D methods into production-ready protocols, builds robust methods that junior technicians can execute reliably, and designs comprehensive controls that enable automated QC and data processing.

This is a player-coach position.

You will still run experiments personally, especially as you integrate into the lab, but you will also elevate the whole team's capabilities.

What You'll Do Troubleshoot production failures across the full pipeline.

A batch of proteins isn't expressing: is it the construct design, the expression system, or the media?

BLI sensorgrams look noisy: is it the sensor tips, the sample prep, or an instrument issue?

You figure it out, fix it, and make the cause easier to identify next time.

Develop and document SOPs for new assays as the portfolio expands.

Take methods from the R&D team and make them production-ready: robust, reproducible, and executable by junior technicians without hand-holding.

Mentor a growing production team.

Set quality standards, review data, train new hires, and build a culture where people flag problems early instead of hiding them.

Work at the intersection of biology, automation, and QC.

Collaborate with researchers, laboratory technicians, and automation engineers on protocol optimization for work cells, and with software on Lab OS protocol integration.

Own the relationship between assay science and throughput.

The easy version of every assay doesn't scale, and the scalable version often sacrifices quality.

You find the right tradeoff.

What We're Looking For Deep hands-on expertise in protein production: expression (E. coli, mammalian, cell-free), purification (IMAC, SEC), and biophysical characterization (BLI and SPR at minimum).

This isn't negotiable.

You need to have done this work yourself, at volume.

Ph D in protein biochemistry, biophysics, or a relevant field, plus 3-5 years in a production or development role at a CRO, foundry, or high-throughput lab.

Academic postdocs count if the work was high-throughput and production-oriented.

Experience with high-throughput workflows.

You're comfortable with 96-well plates and liquid handlers, not just single-column purifications.

You've optimized protocols for scale, not just for one perfect result.

Mentorship mindset.

You've managed or trained junior scientists before.

You enjoy teaching and get satisfaction from watching your team grow.

Troubleshooting instinct.

When data looks wrong, your first impulse is to understand why, not to rerun the experiment and hope it works.

Quality-obsessed but pragmatic.

You care deeply about data quality, but you also understand that production has deadlines and sometimes "good enough" is the right call.

Bridge between R&D and production.

You can speak both languages: the exploratory mindset of research and the reproducibility demands of production.

Details

Location: Lausanne, Switzerland (on-site)Type: Full time Start date: ASAPApplication deadline We are reviewing applicants on a rolling basis. #J-18808-Ljbffr