Company Description

As a world market leader in crop protection, we help farmers to counter these threats and ensure enough safe, nutritious, affordable food for all –while minimizing the use of land and other agricultural inputs.

Syngenta Crop Protection keeps plants safe from planting to harvesting. From the moment a seed is planted through to harvest, crops need to be protected from weeds, insects and diseases as well as droughts and floods, heat and cold.

Syngenta Crop Protection is headquartered in Switzerland.

Job Description

At Syngenta, we believe every employee has a role to play in safely feeding the world and taking care of our planet. To support that challenge, the Bioinformatics Group is seeking a Protein Design Scientist, located in Durham, North Carolina. As a Protein Design Scientist, you will be an important link in a high-performance team of trait design scientists. You will bring cutting-edge skills in protein modeling, structure prediction, and AI-driven design approaches to provide innovative solutions for enhancing trait performance.

Accountabilities:

• Lead the advancement of functional capabilities in protein design by integrating sequence and structure modeling to optimize specific agricultural traits.
• Join cross-functional research teams to deliver next-generation leads to the trait product pipeline.
• Become an active member of the Bioinformatics Group and drive innovation in protein design and sequence modeling.
• Synthesize results and clearly communicate progress and challenges to a range of stakeholders.
• Implement and leverage AI/ML approaches, including large language models, to accelerate protein design workflows.
• Create and leverage protein structure and sequence data to support discovery research efforts in insect control, herbicide tolerance, disease control, and genome editing.
• Develop and apply AI-driven approaches, including large language models and embedding techniques, to predict structure, stability, and activity directly from sequence data.
• Be an active member of a scientific group that leverages research in protein structure and function, deep learning and artificial intelligence, genomics, proteomics, and molecular biology to address trait gene discovery in agricultural biotechnology.
• Monitor and implement advancements in sequence- and structure-based protein design and informatics to support discovery research objectives.
• Liaise with external research groups and provide technical expertise in research collaborations.

Qualifications

PLEASE NOTE -- Candidates must be already located in the United States and not require visa sponsorship now or in the future (includes OPT).

Required:

• PhD with 1+ years of experience in bioinformatics, computational biology, biochemistry, biophysics, or a related field.
• Strong understanding of protein biochemistry or biophysics related to protein structure/function.
• Demonstrated track record in protein engineering and expertise in computational sequence analysis.
• Working knowledge of AI/ML applications in protein design, including experience with large language models, embedding techniques, and generative sequence models.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work in a highly dynamic and collaborative environment.

Desired:

• Expertise using protein modeling and structural analysis software applications (ProGen, ESM family models, ProteinMPNN, AlphaFold2/3, RFdiffusion, Rosetta, etc.).
• Experience applying generative AI and sequence models to protein design challenges.
• Proficiency with methods and tools to query and analyze large datasets of public and proprietary sequence and structural data.
• Experience working in cloud computing environments and containerized workflows.
• Familiarity with modern ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX).
• Experience in trait or agriculture domains.

Additional Information

What We Offer:

• A culture that celebrates diversity & inclusion, promotes professional development, and strives for a work-life balance that supports the team members. Offers flexible work options to support your work and personal needs.
• Full Benefit Package (Medical, Dental & Vision) that starts your first day.
• 401k plan with company match, Profit Sharing & Retirement Savings Contribution.
• Paid Vacation, Paid Holidays, Maternity and Paternity Leave, Education Assistance, Wellness Programs, Corporate Discounts, among other benefits.

Syngenta has been ranked as a top employer by Science Journal. Learn more about our team and our mission here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVCN_51GbNI

Syngenta is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or any other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.

WL: 4A

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