Associate Director, Tissue Culture and Cell Engineering

Company Summary:

Founded by Flagship Pioneering in 2021, Metaphore aims to unlock breakthroughs that outperform today’s drugs for maximum patient impact, We adapted this idea to drug discovery. MIMIC™, our computationally driven bioplatform that couples machine learning with molecular mimicry, engineers therapeutics to trigger a desired biological response. Our MIMIC platform opens the possibility to develop engineered medicines with specific features to access a range of targets, including those that were previously intractable. Flagship and Metaphore have also just announced a $600M research collaboration with Novo Nordisk to develop up to two next-generation therapeutics for obesity management.

Flagship Pioneering is a bioplatform innovation company that invents and builds platform companies, each with the potential for multiple products that transform human health or sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, Flagship has originated and fostered more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in more than $90 billion in aggregate value. Many of the companies Flagship has founded have addressed humanity’s most urgent challenges: vaccinating billions of people against COVID-19, curing intractable diseases, improving human health, preempting illness, and feeding the world by improving the resiliency and sustainability of agriculture. Flagship has been recognized twice on FORTUNE’s “Change the World” list, an annual ranking of companies that have made a positive social and environmental impact through activities that are part of their core business strategies, and has been twice named to Fast Company’s annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies. Learn more about Flagship at www.flagshippioneering.com.

Position Summary

Metaphore Biotechnologies is seeking a Sr. Manager/of Tissue Culture and Cell Engineering. This individual will provide the technical hands-on and operational leadership to build a team of scientists and engineers responsible for the development of robust and scalable cell line development and cell culture processes. The ideal candidate brings expertise in mammalian cell culture, molecular biology, mammalian cell protein production, in vitro assay development and execution, and experience interfacing with automated systems. The candidate will work cross functionally with members of the platform discovery, development, and translational sciences teams to advance our mammalian cell line development and culture and protein sciences capabilities, enabling our growing discovery and AI/ML protein design needs. This individual will join a dynamic, rapidly growing, and highly collaborative team with significant visibility throughout the organization.

Key Responsibilities:

• Serve as inaugural member of the tissue, leading establishment of lab processes and workflows, and growth of the tissue
• Drive team excellence by recruiting, training, and mentoring a high-performance tissue culture and cell engineering group.
• Lead and implement development of cell culture best practices, owning cell line onboarding, maintenance, expansion, cryopreservation, cataloging, and QC of new cell lines across the organization.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams (e.g., Protein Sciences, Translational, Automation) to establish optimal assay protocols, conditions, and SOPs for key workflows across protein sciences and assay development.
• Assess integration of new tissue culture approaches into core workflows, including primary tissues and organoids.
• Develop and implement process improvements and technological advancements to enhance yield, scale, quality, purity and other key outputs.
• Manage budgets, timelines, request queue, and resources to meet organizational and project-specific goals.
• Implement inventory tracking, cell banking, and rigorous metadata capture/annotation via ELN and other LIMS systems.
• Establish and manage tissue culture facility operations, adhering to latest industry standards.
  
  

Basic Qualifications:

• BS/BA, MS of relevant industry experience. Industry experience required.
• Strong expertise in mammalian cell culture (adherent & suspension cultures, stable cell lines, inducible systems, etc.), and primary cells.
• Proven experience with novel cell line generation and diverse methods for stable or transient protein expression, such as transfections, transductions, electroporation, etc.
• Proven hands-on experience with cell-based and molecular biology assays such as: cell viability/cytotoxicity, flow cytometry, mRNA expression analysis (qPCR/ddPCR/RNA-seq), western blotting, ELISA among others.
• Experienced managing various ELN and LIMS systems and ensuring team compliance.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work in a highly collaborative and cross-functional way.
• A strong self-starter, resourceful, independent thinker, with excellent attention to details. Ability to work independently and make critical decisions.
• Eager to work with highly skilled and dynamic teams in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, and technical setting.
• Experience managing multiple direct reports.
  
  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working with automation and automated high-throughput cell culture processes.
• Queue management experience in a service-oriented manner; this position interfaces with all functional groups with continuous high demand.
• Experience working collaboratively with computational biology and machine learning scientists for de novo protein design.
  
  

Values and Behaviors

• We are seeking individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit, strong communication skills, and comfort working in and contributing to a dynamic and cross-functional team environment. The level of the role will be commensurate with the education and years of experience of the identified candidate.
• At Flagship, we recognize there is no perfect candidate. If you have some of the experience listed above but not all, please apply anyway. Experience comes in many forms, skills are transferable, and passion goes a long way. We are dedicated to building diverse and inclusive teams and look forward to learning more about your unique background.
  
  

Recruitment & Staffing Agencies

Flagship Pioneering and its affiliated Flagship Lab companies (collectively, “FSP”) do not accept unsolicited resumes from any source other than candidates. The submission of unsolicited resumes by recruitment or staffing agencies to FSP or its employees is strictly prohibited unless contacted directly by Flagship Pioneering’s internal Talent Acquisition team. Any resume submitted by an agency in the absence of a signed agreement will automatically become the property of FSP, and FSP will not owe any referral or other fees with respect thereto.