Senior Scientist - Poultry Biologics

Role Description

The Zoetis Poultry Biologics group is seeking an experienced, innovative and highly motivated professional to significantly contribute to the discovery and development of Poultry vaccines. VMRD Global Biologics designs and develops novel biological products to address economically impactful diseases or conditions in livestock and companion animals. As an integral member of research and development project teams, the candidate will design and implement R&D programs to advance vaccine development within Poultry Biologicals. The candidate will collaborate extensively with analytical, formulation, clinical, regulatory, commercial, and manufacturing colleagues as part of our global multidisciplinary teams. The Senior Scientist will work autonomously as a full member of project teams, or leading discipline specific subteams executing experiments and reporting results. To be successful, the candidate will be an effective communicator, motivated and will have knowledge in bacteriology, parasitology, virology and vaccinology as well as being a team player.

The position is based in Kalamazoo (Michigan, USA) with frequent interactions with colleagues and external partners located around the globe.

Position Responsibilities

• Apply knowledge of biological, analytical, bacterial, virological, molecular biology, and process optimization to design and execute experiments to select robust vaccine candidates and develop new and improve existing vaccines.
• Participation on research project teams and lead subteams and clinical safety/efficacy testing with the goal to license animal health Biologics.
• Drive innovation and continuous improvement by conducting laboratory experiments at scales ranging from bench side to commercial quantities.
• Serve as a technical resource to project teams by providing support in vaccinology, immunology, virology, parasitology, and microbiology required for successful project delivery. This includes open communication of experimental findings with team members, peers, and management.
• Document experiments in electronic laboratory notebooks and records in accordance with scientific protocol and applicable Standard Operating Procedures. Provide summaries and reports for inclusion in dossiers for product registration and technology transfer.
• Drive innovation and continuous improvement by assessing novel equipment, methods and procedures to develop new and/or improve upon existing techniques.

Organizational Relationships

• The position is in the Global Biologics group. The Senior Scientist will interact with external collaborators, peers and colleagues working in disciplines that include vaccine research, process development, clinical development, analytical development, molecular biology regulatory, statistics, quality control as well as others. Interaction with Regulatory colleagues and National Regulatory Agencies for registration activities is also expected.
• This position supports multiple products in research, development, launch and post-launch phases. The Senior Scientist is expected to form collaborative working relationships with Project Team Leaders, line representatives, and colleagues within multi-disciplinary team settings including Lab Sciences, Regulatory, Project Management, Manufacturing, Clinical, Commercial Development and Life Cycle Innovation, and Marketing.

Education and Experience

• Minimum: PhD in biology, animal science, immunology, vaccinology, bioengineering, or related biotechnology fields with 1-3 years of experience in a relevant field.
• MS in biology, animal science, immunology, vaccinology, bioengineering, or related biotechnology fields with 5 years of experience in a relevant field.
• Knowledge of Poultry health arena and animal infectious diseases.
• Desirable: Experience in the fields of analytical methods, clinical trials, parasitology, bacteria propagation, virus/vaccine propagation and assessment in eggs, molecular biology, carbohydrate vaccines, recombinant expression systems and Poultry clinical experience.
• Demonstrated ability to design, analyze and interpret bio-analytical, assay development, immunology methods, process development, vaccine manufacturing, and vaccine development experiments.

Technical Skills Requirements

Required:

• Excellent organizational, interpersonal, and communication abilities (verbal and written English) with demonstrated skill in documentation, scientific writing (protocols, reports, journal articles) and presenting data and study summaries to project teams. Computer skills required: Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint.
• Demonstration of initiative and self-motivation, with passion to work in a collaborative and dynamic multi-disciplinary team environment in a global company and able to prioritize work and work efficiently with limited supervision to meet multiple project timelines.
• Strong practical and theoretical knowledge of the scientific disciplines that support vaccine design and development.
• Independent and critical scientific thinking including a willingness to embrace, evaluate, and enable new technologies for the purpose of improving existing capabilities. High attention to detail.

Desirable:

• Experience in bacterial and viral propagation (in vitro and in vivo), molecular expertise or knowledge in recombinant expression platforms, parasitology, veterinary vaccine development, and associated analytical and immunology methods.
• Experience designing and analyzing statistically robust in vitro and in vivo experiments using the Design of Experiment (DoE) concepts.
• Experience in vaccine clinical trials (preferably poultry) including protocol and report development, in vivo techniques, assessment of clinical model outcomes, and interpretation of results.
• Experience working in a quality regulated environment (e.g. GMP, GLP)
  

About Zoetis

At Zoetis, our purpose is to nurture the world and humankind by advancing care for animals. As a Fortune 500 company and the world leader in animal health, we discover, develop, manufacture and commercialize vaccines, medicines, diagnostics and other technologies for companion animals and livestock. We know our people drive our success. Our award-winning culture, built around our Core Beliefs, focuses on our colleagues' careers, connection and support. We offer competitive healthcare and retirement savings benefits, along with an array of benefits, policies and programs to support employee well-being in every sense, from health and financial wellness to family and lifestyle resources.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Connected to our purpose and Core Beliefs, at Zoetis, we lead with inclusion. Our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) focus helps create an environment where each colleague can thrive. Our commitment to DE&I begins with our leadership team of diverse backgrounds, experiences and ethnicities, and it is demonstrated in our support of our colleagues and the animal health industry. We have nine colleague resources groups whose members spread awareness, foster inclusivity and make a positive impact on our business and communities.

Our commitment to advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has earned us recognitions as a 2024 Catalyst Award recipient and a Top 50 Company for Workplace Fairness by Fair360 (formerly DiversityInc). Zoetis has also been named a Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality, a Best Company for Working Parents, a Top Company for Executive Women, among many others. Learn more here.

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