Associate Principal Scientist - Oligonucleotides and NGS Lead

Are you an experienced scientist with great expertise in Next Generation Sequencing and Molecular Biology? Do you want to use this expertise to contribute to the discovery of novel oligonucleotide therapies? We have an opening suitable for you!

Right now, we seek a highly motivated Molecular Biologist with NGS skills to join our Drug Molecular Profiling - NGS & Transcriptomics team at AstraZeneca in Gothenburg, Sweden. In this role you will lead our application of molecular biology and NGS to the discovery of oligonucleotide therapies and play an important part in the broader Translational Genomics Department.

This role comes as part of AstraZeneca's huge investment in oligonucleotide therapies, where our ambition is to be world leading in this field. We are achieving this through advances in oligonucleotide science and innovation internally and through the establishment of key collaborations outside AstraZeneca. To this end we currently have a portfolio of very high profile projects at different phases of drug discovery within AstraZeneca, and you will directly contribute to their successful progression to oligonucleotide therapies.

What you will do:
This role is for a leading molecular biologist in the NGS/Transcriptomics area - lab-based role at the forefront of NGS /Transcriptomics technology with a focus on effective delivery, troubleshooting and putting ideas into action. You will apply your proven molecular biology and NGS expertise, developing novel and innovative approaches to the characterization and profiling of the effects of oligonucleotide treatment in a range of in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo assays. In doing so you demonstrate a passion for driving scientific questions, combined with strong team working ethics, to drug discovery projects.

The Associate Principal Scientist provides support, supervision and mentorship to scientists, ensuring that methods run expertly and correctly, developing and guiding the set-up of new techniques and contributes with data and scientific input to drug projects. You will nurture strong collaborative relationships with the project investigators, key partners, and data scientists to ensure the smooth running of projects.

Essential in the role:
This role will cover all relevant aspects from hypothesis generation, through experimental design and execution, sample and library preparation, sequencing, data handling, post sequencing QC and trouble shooting. Therefore we expect the individual taking on the role to have;

* Ph.D. degree in a relevant scientific field and several years of relevant experience in drug discovery and/or early development or in a leading academic institution.
* At least 5 years hands on expertise with a broad range of Next Generation Sequencing /Transcriptomics technologies including HT-qPCR, RNA-Seq, DNA-Seq, epigenetic, single cell and long read technologies.
* Evidence that you have taken a leading role in the application of your scientific expertise to the development of novel and innovative approaches.
* Strong evidence of scientific contribution in your field of expertise through a track record of High-Impact and High-Quality publications, internal and external presentations.
* An overall knowledge of the state of art for nucleic acids based therapies.
* Significant experience of NGS technology development and innovation.

Highly desirable for the role:

* Working with laboratory automation / liquid handling systems, method and technology development and optimization.
* Hands-on laboratory experience running NGS platforms (Illumina, Oxford Nanopore etc).

Why AstraZeneca?
It's our combination of curiosity and courage that drives us, inspired by the possibility of doing things that have never been done before. Empowered to step up, we free ourselves from fear of failure to dig deep into the biology of complex diseases and make bold decisions. Celebrating our successes and failures along the way.

So, what's next? If this sounds like your next challenge - welcome to join us at AstraZeneca!

Please include a CV and cover letter highlighting previous experience regarding essential and desirable skills for this role. We look forward to get to know you better and we need your application no later than 13th March, 2022.

For more information about the position please contact Graham Belfield at +46 708 808733 or Graham.Belfield@astrazeneca.com.

Additional information
Our Gothenburg site: https://www.astrazeneca.com/our-science/gothenburg.html
Make a move to Global Gothenburg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-Iqbb4aw38
About BioPharmaceuticals R&D: https://www.astrazeneca.com/r-d.html