Senior Manager, R&D

Work Your Magic with us! Start your next chapter and join MilliporeSigma.
Ready to explore, break barriers, and discover more? We know you’ve got big plans – so do we! Our colleagues across the globe love innovating with science and technology to enrich people’s lives with our solutions in Healthcare, Life Science, and Electronics. Together, we dream big and are passionate about caring for our rich mix of people, customers, patients, and planet. That's why we are always looking for curious minds that see themselves imagining the unimaginable with us.
This role does not offer sponsorship for work authorization. External applicants must be eligible to work in the US.
Your Role:
Join us as a strategic R&D team lead within Chemical Synthesis Solutions (CSS) R&D at MilliporeSigma. In this pivotal role, you will serve as the cornerstone scientific bridge between chemistry and biology. You are a dual-domain expert: a chemist with deep protein/peptide/DEL and medicinal chemistry foundations who independently designs and executes the in vitro biochemical and cell-based assays required to validate chemical hypotheses.
Your work spans the full early drug discovery continuum — from target identification and mechanism of action (MOA) studies, through proof-of-concept (PoC) validation of CSS chemical products and proprietary platforms, to enabling the characterization of novel therapeutic modalities including peptide drugs, ADCs, ASOs, and targeted protein degraders. Furthermore, you will spearhead the design, construction, and strategic application of DNA-Encoded Libraries (DELs), leveraging this technology to validate high-throughput affinity screens.
You will lead a cross-disciplinary sub-team and act as a senior scientific partner to customers, Key Opinion Leaders, and internal stakeholders. You will ensure CSS remains the partner of choice for customers navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of novel therapeutic modalities. You will also sustain strategic momentum across adjacent domains including next-generation biomaterials and drug delivery, and shape the 5–10 year chemical biology capability roadmap for CSS,
The successful candidate will be a chemist at heart with a strong biological toolkit — someone who understands how molecular structure drives biological function, and who can translate chemical innovation into biologically validated insights that underpin our product and platform strategy.
Core Responsibilities:
1. Chemical Biology & Medicinal Chemistry Interface
Design and synthesize chemical probes, tool compounds, and novel building blocks; apply SAR, ADME, and selectivity principles to guide prioritization of CSS chemical candidates and platform molecules.
Lead protein and peptide chemistry within CSS R&D: solid-phase/liquid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS/LPPS), cyclic and stapled peptide design, site-specific protein modification, and antibody conjugation strategies for ADCs, PROTACs, ASOs and peptide therapeutics.
Lead the design and synthesis of novel DELs (encompassing membrane-DEL and proximity-DEL) and integrate DEL-derived insights to streamline and accelerate validation of screening hits.
Provide expert guidance on linker chemistry, bioconjugation, and payload design for novel modalities (ADCs, TPDs, peptide–drug conjugates, ASO-based therapeutics, as well as RNAs).
Deploy chemical biology approaches — activity-based protein profiling (ABPP), photoaffinity labeling, chemoproteomics, chemical genetics — to interrogate target biology and support target identification workflows.
2. In Vitro Biochemical & Cell-Based Assay Development
Independently design, develop, optimize, and execute a comprehensive suite of in vitro biochemical and cell-based assays: binding assays (TR-FRET, AlphaScreen, SPR, fluorescence polarization), enzyme activity assays, cellular target engagement assays (CETSA, NanoBRET), and functional/phenotypic assays.
Apply protein labeling techniques — fluorescent labeling, biotinylation, crosslinking, affinity enrichment, pull-down, and co-immunoprecipitation — to support target deconvolution and MOA studies.
Maintain mammalian cell culture capabilities required for functional assay execution and PoC validation of CSS chemical candidates and platforms.
Provide deep technical expertise in the in vitro characterization of novel therapeutic modalities: peptide drugs, ADCs, ASOs, siRNA/mRNA constructs, proteins, and targeted protein degraders, including assessment of cellular uptake, target engagement, and functional activity.
Establish and enforce assay quality standards (Z’-factor, S/N ratio, CV, reproducibility) to ensure data integrity and scientific rigor across all biological testing activities.
3. MOA Studies, Target Identification & Proof-of-Concept Validation
Serve as the primary scientific resource for MOA studies and PoC validation across CSS chemical candidates and proprietary platforms; define experimental strategies, execute studies, and deliver clear, decision-enabling data packages with explicit go/