Scientific Officer - Protein Expression and Purification

About the team/job

The EMBL Protein Expression and Purification Core Facility provides scientific support regarding all types of experiments related to advanced protein expression, purification and biophysical characterization. The facility offers high-level services covering the entire workflow for recombinant protein production in E. coli, insect and mammalian cells, whilst also maintaining a state-of-the-art biophysics platform for protein characterization and interaction studies.

Your role

The new staff member’s main responsibility will be to provide recombinant protein production services to our user community. Daily tasks include discussing the project needs with individual users and developing suitable strategies for construct design, expression and purification of the requested proteins. You will need to be able to independently assess both the protein characteristics and the requirements of the downstream application and develop a suitable protein production workflow based on this information. Protocols and results need to be carefully documented and reports for the users should be prepared in a timely manner. In the facility, all staff members share the responsibility for general lab management and organization, such as managing cell and plasmid stocks, ordering reagents and maintaining the equipment. Training and supervision of users, students and visiting scientists will also be a key part of this role.

You have

• A degree in biochemistry, molecular biology or in a closely related scientific area from an accredited university or a technical school.
• Expertise in the field of recombinant protein production in the milligram scale, ideally using different gene expression systems.
• Strong technical skills, especially regarding the use and maintenance of laboratory-scale automated chromatography platforms for protein purification (e.g., ÄKTA, NGC and/or other chromatography systems)
• A good understanding and background knowledge of standard chromatographic techniques such as affinity chromatography, ion exchange and size exclusion chromatography.
• A desire to stay up-to-date with novel developments in the field and willingness to learn new methods and technologies as required.
• Excellent organizational skills and capability to work on multiple projects in parallel.
• The ability to communicate fluently in English, as this is the working language at EMBL.

You might also have

Cell culture experience and expertise in the field of protein expression in eukaryotic cells, especially insect and mammalian cells, would be considered an advantage for this position. A good working knowledge of various cloning methods would be beneficial as well.

Why join us

EMBL is curiosity-driven, community-oriented and international. As an inclusive, equal opportunity employer, we believe that diversity enables us to collaborate more effectively and be innovative in our approaches.

EMBL offers attractive conditions and benefits appropriate to an international research organisation with a very collegial and family-friendly working environment. Competitive salary and social security benefits, financial support for relocation, a relaxed culture, professional development, an on-site nursery, canteen and other staff facilities make EMBL a great place to work.

Enjoy lots of benefits

• Financial incentives: Income tax expemtion, monthly family, child and non-resident allowances, annual salary review, a pension scheme, life insurance, long-term care, accident-at-work and unemployment insurances
• Flexible working arrangements
• Certified training and continued development of your professional and personal skills
• Private medical insurance for you and your immediate family
• Generous time off: 30 days annual leave per year
• Generous relocation package including installation grant (if applicable)
• Family benefits: On site nursery, 10 days of child sick leave, generous parental leave and monthly family and child allowances
• Benefits for international newcomers: Visa exemption, education grant for private schooling, financial support to travel back to your home country every second year and a monthly non-resident allowance

What else you need to know

We are Europe’s research laboratory for the life sciences – an intergovernmental organisation performing scientific research in disciplines including molecular biology, physics, chemistry and computer science. We are an international, innovative and
interdisciplinary laboratory with more than 1900 employees from many nations, operating across six sites, in Heidelberg (HQ), Barcelona, Hinxton near Cambridge, Hamburg, Grenoble and Rome.

Please note that appointments on fixed term contracts can be renewed up to 9 years in total, depending on circumstances at the time of the review.

EMBL is a signatory of DORA. Find out how we implement best practices in research assessment in our recruitment processes here.