Head of Cell Line Development

Job Description

Job Description

Our mission at Asimov is to advance humanity's ability to design living systems, enabling biotechnologies with outsized benefit to society. We've built a mammalian synthetic biology platform – from cells to software – to enable the design and manufacture of next-generation therapeutics.

We are seeking a Head of Cell Line Development (CLD) to lead Asimov’s biologics CLD team and help push the boundaries of biologics manufacturing. The successful candidate will be responsible for managing direct reports and lab activities in support of the generation and characterization of cell lines expressing the highest quantity and quality of protein therapeutics. We have experienced rapid growth in both our project portfolio and CLD team, and we expect that growth trajectory to continue for the foreseeable future. This role will be central to scaling capabilities, workflows, and leadership structures accordingly.

This role requires a strategic leader with a deep technical foundation in biologics cell line development and a proven track record of growing and managing high-performing teams. Working closely with Asimov’s synthetic biology, process development, computational modeling, and software teams, this role will shape Asimov’s CLD vision and contribute as a thought leader to advance the state of the art in biologics cell line development. The role will also partner with commercial, program management, and technical teams to support customer-facing communications, including scientific discussions with prospective clients and collaborators. This is a unique opportunity to work at a nimble, forward-thinking synthetic biology company.

About the Role :

As the Head of CLD, you’ll lead and develop Asimov’s CLD team, managing scientists and research associates focused on CHO-based biologics CLD.

You’ll guide individuals and the team towards personal and professional development milestones, all in support of Asimov's vision and goals.

You’ll drive excellence in execution, ensuring robust, high-throughput workflows for stable clone generation, screening, and characterization to deliver production cell lines meeting titer, quality, and regulatory expectations.

You’ll address complex cell line development challenges by demonstrating and applying cross-functional knowledge and industry best practices.

You’ll foster cross-functional collaboration with Synthetic Biology, Process Development, Process Modeling, Computational Biology, and Software teams to integrate design, data, and automation capabilities.

You’ll serve as a scientific and technical thought leader, identifying and implementing emerging technologies in expression vector design, gene integration, host engineering, productivity optimization, and workflow improvements.

You’ll represent Asimov externally, contributing to industry conferences, industry forums such as AMBIC and BioPhorum, filing patents, and publishing peer-reviewed manuscripts.

About You :

You have a Ph.D. in Biological Engineering, Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, or a related field.

You have 10+ years of experience in CHO-based cell line development supporting IND-enabling and / or GMP manufacturing activities.

You have a deep understanding of cell biology, expression system design, gene integration technologies, and process-relevant analytics.

You have a track record of strategic thinking and innovation, translating R&D advances into scalable, manufacturable platforms.

You have proven experience managing a team of scientists, with a track record of developing scientists and supporting rigorous scientific execution.

You are comfortable engaging with internal and external stakeholders and can clearly communicate scientific and strategic considerations to prospective partners or clients.

We're fueled by a vision to transform biological engineering into a fully-fledged engineering discipline. Should you join our team, you will grow with a constantly evolving organization and push the frontiers of synthetic biology. Company culture is key to Asimov, and ours is a culture of recombination; we believe that our mission can only be achieved by bringing together a diverse team with a mixture of backgrounds and perspectives.

Compensation Range : $220K - $280K