Overview As a Microbiology Research Program Senior Specialist, you will lead and advance complex vaccine-related microbiology research under the PI, aligning milestones with program goals. You provide expert guidance, troubleshoot challenges, and translate findings into actionable insights for product, clinical, or public health applications. You collaborate across R&D, regulatory, and commercial teams to ensure scientific quality and regulatory compliance. This role blends deep technical microbiology with programmatic leadership in a translational setting.
Compensation / Benefits- health benefits
- retirement plan
- paid time off
Responsibilities- Direct microbiology research programs and align milestones with program goals, focusing on vaccine discovery, optimization, and evaluation.
- Manage high-impact vaccine development initiatives, ensuring timely delivery and high scientific standards.
- Oversee quality assurance of data and studies informing vaccine candidate selection and preclinical evaluation.
- Implement standardized protocols and manage data across all study phases to prevent errors.
- Provide guidance on protocol development for microbiology and vaccine methods, including assay validation.
- Troubleshoot laboratory challenges, interpret results, and propose alternative approaches to improve quality and consistency.
- Independently perform complex tests related to vaccine candidates, including in vitro and ex vivo models and immune readouts.
- Ensure adherence to regulatory standards (FDA, ISO, cGMP) where relevant and oversee biosafety and documentation.
- Enforce IBC protocols and regulatory guidelines applicable to vaccine research.
- Serve as cross-functional SME, guiding other personnel and partners.
- Analyze data and translate findings into actionable products, including vaccine advancement and translational studies.
- Interface with R&D, clinical affairs, regulatory, and commercial teams to align research with downstream applications.
- Assist PI with drafting and editing funding proposals and presenting results for publications and presentations.
- Present findings at national and international conferences on vaccines and translational microbiology.
- Lead and disseminate data, contributing to publications and grant writing, and mentor others in data interpretation.
- Provide expertise to solve complex problems and support protocol improvement in collaborative settings.
- Perform other related work as needed.
Key requirements- PhD in related field
- 7+ years of work experience in a related discipline
- Experience in vaccine development and advanced microbiology research
- Ability to design, execute, and troubleshoot complex experiments
- Experience implementing standardized protocols, quality control, and data management
- Familiarity with regulatory frameworks and biosafety; IBC oversight experience
- Strong written and oral communication skills for grants, manuscripts, and presentations
- Ability to collaborate in cross-functional teams and provide technical guidance
- collaboration
- clear communication
- problem solving
- vaccine development
- advanced microbiology experiments
- assay validation and optimization
