Airtree is advertising this role on behalf of one of our portfolio companies, who are currently in stealth mode.
We exist to drastically increase access to advanced medicines.
We're hiring a senior industry scientist to deliver antibody programs for customers, with particular depth in CHO cell-line development and upstream process development.
Why this role exists

Customers come to us with an biologic and a delivery goal. This role turns that starting point into a productive, stable cell line and a robust upstream process that can move confidently toward the factory. You will own the scientific delivery of multiple customer programs: define the development plan, design the decisive experiments, interpret the biology and communicate what the data means. This is a senior individual-contributor role with real accountability for outcomes, not a broad people-management role and not a role that ends at producing interesting data.

The Role

Owning the scientific delivery of customer antibody programs from cell-line strategy through media and feed development, bioreactor confirmation and a clear scale-up package.
Designing and driving CHO cell-line development: host and vector choices, transfection, pool generation, clone selection, screening, stability assessment and cell-banking strategy.
Developing and optimising basal media and feeds using disciplined,



decision-oriented experiments grounded in cell metabolism and process biology.
Translating customer goals, target product profiles and timelines into development plans with explicit milestones, risks, decision gates and data packages.
Designing DoEs and run plans across high-throughput screens, 300 mL bioreactors and 3 L confirmation runs; setting parameters, sampling plans and analytical requirements.
Diagnosing the causes of weak growth, viability, productivity or product quality - separating cell-line, media, feed and process effects and choosing the next experiment quickly.
Working closely with analytics and downstream teams so upstream decisions reflect titre, product quality, impurity burden and the needs of the complete manufacturing process.
Communicating directly and credibly with customers: explaining results, trade-offs, uncertainty and the recommended path forward in clear scientific and commercial language.
Delegating routine execution to operations technicians while staying close enough to the work to protect scientific quality and stepping in hands-on when the biology demands it.
Turning lessons from individual programs into reusable platform rules, operating windows and better development workflows.

📌 Senior Scientist - Antibody Bioprocess Development (Sydney)
🏢 Airtree Ventures
📍 Sydney