Principal Scientist (all genders) Structural Biology
About this opportunity
Your Role
As a Principal Scientist (all genders) in the Structural Biology and Biophysics team, R&D Discovery, you will provide scientific leadership across interdisciplinary projects to elucidate structural mode of action and enable structure-based design with a focus on macromolecular complexes of antibodies, multispecifics, and molecular degraders. You will implement and broaden single-particle cryo-EM capabilities and drive experimental end-to-end strategies for structural enablement from protein and sample generation, data acquisition to structural model building. You will coordinate CRO and collaboration-partner activities for reagents and data generation and drive innovations in structural biology. You clearly explain and communicate scientific findings and proposals to cross-functional teams and stakeholders to influence informed and fast decision-making. You will mentor and develop junior scientists in structural biology and drug discovery, contributing to a high-performing, collaborative culture.
Who You Are
PhD in Structural Biology or a related field with more than ten years of relevant experience (including biopharma/biotech) and a strong track record to design, execute and drive complex structural biology projects.
Deep expertise in high-resolution structure determination by cryo-EM (sample generation, data collection and processing, structure refinement with industry-standard software).
Experience working with antigen–antibody and protein degrader complexes, with a deep understanding of structure–function relationships.
Preferably experience in protein crystallography and biophysical methods (e.g. HDX-MS, SAXS; Refeyn, FIDA, DSF); cloud-based/HPC data management and processing; LINUX scripting; AI/ML-based prediction of biomolecular structures.
Effective collaborator and leader in multidisciplinary settings with excellent English communication; skilled in guiding and mentoring scientists, coordinating multi-site work, and managing CROs to balance project demands.
Proven ability to convey complex data clearly to drive decisions; strong publication history or impactful drug discovery contributions (oncology/immunology/neuroscience favored); excellent problem-solving and experience introducing relevant new technologies.
AT / Expert 3
HC-RD-XPS Structural Biology & Biophysics
Job details
How this role compares
Computed from every other active Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research role in our database, not just this employer's listings.
We currently track 187 comparable Principal Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 31 biopharma companies.
Salary context
65 of 187 peers report a salary range (USD, annualized)
Peers share this role's job function and a matching or adjacent seniority level -- not necessarily the same therapeutic area or country.
Where these roles are based
Top locations among the 187 comparable roles
+ 6 more countries
Seniority mix
187 of 187 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
28 of 187 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden
Similar opportunities
The closest matches from our peer group, ranked by how similar they are, not how well you'd qualify for them -- treat this as market context, not a guaranteed shortlist; a weak match is labeled as one below.
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How we calculate "similar"
No black box, no LLM guesswork: a deterministic score built from four normalized attributes. Here's this role's own peer group at different match levels, so you can see the mechanism, not just the result.
Every comparison starts from the same 100-point budget: 25 for working in the same function, 40 for the same therapeutic area, 20 for the same or adjacent seniority, 15 for the same country. A dimension we can't confirm on both sides contributes nothing, never a guess, never a free pass.
0 points, never a partial guess. A role we know almost nothing about beyond its function bottoms out at 25%; it never inflates to 100% just because there's little to compare against. Seniority uses a defined ladder (Associate → Manager → Associate Director → Senior → Principal → Director → Senior Director → Executive/VP) so "Director" and "Senior Director" count as adjacent, but "Director" and "Executive/VP" do not.