Novartis Posted July 10, 2026

Senior Scientist, Protein Production

San Diego, United States Regular
Manufacturing & CMC Senior

Novartis is the source of truth for this posting and owns the application process. We surface normalized context and market comparison you won't find on the original listing.

About this opportunity

Come help us discover innovative therapeutic breakthroughs for patients! We are seeking a passionate, curious, and collaborative protein scientist to join our Protein Sciences group, an interdisciplinary team that has expertise in protein chemistry, enzymology, biophysics, NMR, X-ray crystallography, and electron microscopy.As a Protein Scientist, you will focus primarily on the production of proteins to enable structure-guided drug discovery for multiple disease areas. Your responsibilities will include designing protein constructs, carrying out expression in various cell systems, developing methodologies for purification, and protein characterization using biophysical and structural techniques. You will closely collaborate with colleagues within our group and across disease areas to tackle challenging drug discovery projects, contributing to the advancement of early-stage drug development.

Internal Job Title: Senior Scientist I/IILocation: onsite, San Diego, CAAbout the role:Come help us discover innovative therapeutic breakthroughs for patients! We are seeking a passionate, curious, and collaborative protein scientist to join our Protein Sciences group, an interdisciplinary team that has expertise in protein chemistry, enzymology, biophysics, NMR, X-ray crystallography, and electron microscopy.As a Protein Scientist, you will focus primarily on the production of proteins to enable structure-guided drug discovery for multiple disease areas. Your responsibilities will include designing protein constructs, carrying out expression in various cell systems, developing methodologies for purification, and protein characterization using biophysical and structural techniques. You will closely collaborate with colleagues within our group and across disease areas to tackle challenging drug discovery projects, contributing to the advancement of early-stage drug development.Key Responsibilities:Develop and execute protocols to generate high-quality protein reagents for small molecule screening, hit validation, and structural biology studies of protein-small molecule complexes.Design protein constructs based on literature and AI-based structure prediction tools.Express protein expression in mammalian and insect cell systems.Purify protein purification using various chromatography techniques and FPLC equipment.Collaborate with colleagues to characterize protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions using biophysical and structural biology techniques.Apply critical thinking to troubleshoot experiments and design new approaches.Maintain a high level of professional expertise through familiarity with scientific literature and accurate and detailed record keeping.Work both independently and collaboratively as part of multidisciplinary teams.Present and communicate results with protein science colleagues and project teams. Essential Requirements:BS/MS degree in biochemistry, life sciences, molecular biology or related field with at least 5+ years of relevant research laboratory experience.Proven in-depth knowledge with hands-on experience in recombinant protein construct design and expression, including insect cell and mammalian expression systems.Proficiency in different protein purification techniques such as affinity, ion exchange, and gel filtration chromatography using FPLC or HPLC systems.Understanding of protein characterization as well as protein-ligand interactions using biophysical methods (e.g., SPR, DSF, ITC, LC/MS).Demonstrated critical thinking and troubleshooting ability when handling challenging proteins such as aggregated proteins, multicomponent complexes, or membrane proteins.Passionate about biomedical research and drug discovery. Motivated to learn new techniques in protein biochemistry, biophysics, and structural biology.Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, and ability to work effectively in a matrix team environment.Desirable Requirements:Experience in protein crystallography, bio-NMR, or cryo-EM, either directly or working closely with others.Experience in biophysical methods to characterize protein-protein or protein-ligand interactions.Compensation and Benefits:The salary for this position is expected to range between $93,800 and $174,200 per year for Senior Scientist I, and $98,700 and $183,300 for Senior Scientist II. The final salary offered is determined based on factors like, but not limited to, relevant skills and experience, and upon joining Novartis will be reviewed periodically. Novartis may change the published salary range based on company and market factors.Your compensation will include a performance-based cash incentive and, depending on the level of the role, eligibility to be considered for annual equity awards.US-based eligible employees will receive a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, life and disability benefits, a 401(k) with company contribution and match, and a variety of other benefits. In addition, employees are eligible for a generous time off package including vacation, personal days, holidays and other leaves.To learn more about the culture, rewards and benefits we offer our people click here.

Job details

Seniority
Senior
Function
Manufacturing & CMC
Therapeutic area
Not listed
Location
San Diego, United States
Employment type
Regular

How this role compares

Computed from every other active Manufacturing & CMC role in our database, not just this employer's listings.

We currently track 373 comparable Senior Manufacturing & CMC roles across 53 biopharma companies.

373Comparable roles tracked
344Currently active
53Companies hiring similar roles
20Countries represented

Salary context

174 of 373 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.

This roleSubject $93,800/yr – $174,200/yr
Lowest disclosed · Senior Scientist II – CMC Developmental Sciences · AbbVie $0/hr – $0/hr (≈ $0–$0/yr)
Peer group range $0 – $222,900 (median $142,388)

Where these roles are based

Top locations among the 373 comparable roles

United States267
India37
Ireland10
Singapore10
Netherlands7
Switzerland6

+ 14 more countries

Seniority mix

373 of 373 peers have a known seniority level

Senior250
Principal79
Associate Director44

Therapeutic area mix

0 of 373 peers have a known therapeutic area; the rest are genuinely unlabeled, not hidden

No peers with a known therapeutic area yet.

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.

60%similar
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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.

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Unmatched or unknown dimensions score exactly the same: 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.