Principal Scientist (all genders) Structural Biology
About this opportunity
Your Role
As a Principal Scientist in the Structural Biology and Biophysics team, R&D Discovery, you will provide scientific leadership in 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 strengthen our X-ray crystallography capabilities and, where possible complement our cryo-EM workflows to establish integrated, end-to-end experimental strategies for structural enablement, spanning protein and sample generation, data acquisition, and structural model building. You coordinate CRO/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 support informed and fast decision-making. You will mentor and develop junior scientists in structure biology and drug discovery contributing to a high-performing, collaborative culture.
Who You Are
PhD in Structural Biology or a related field with 10+ years of relevant experience (including biopharma, biotech) and strong track record to design, execute and drive complex structural biology projects.
Deep expertise in high-resolution structure determination of proteins and protein complexes by Xray crystallography (sample generation, data collection & processing, structure refinement with industry-standard software).
Experience working with antigen–antibody and protein degrader complexes, with a deep understanding of structure–function relationships.
Ideally hands-on with single-particle cryo-EM and biophysical (e.g. HDX-MS, SAXS; Refeyn, FIDA, DSF)
Experience with 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/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 abilities 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 227 comparable Principal Drug Discovery & Preclinical Research roles across 44 biopharma companies.
Salary context
92 of 227 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 227 comparable roles
+ 7 more countries
Seniority mix
227 of 227 peers have a known seniority level
Therapeutic area mix
30 of 227 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.