Director / Vice President, Antibody Engineering
Our team is looking for a highly motivated and experienced Director / Vice President of Antibody Engineering to join our Central Research team in 2026. We are seeking candidates with a demonstrated passion and prowess for antibody discovery. The ideal candidate would sit alongside within our Cambridge, UK research lab, where we integrate hardware and biological engineering to conduct and extract insights from millions of experiments. For exceptional candidates, we are open to the role sitting alongside our investment and drug development teams in San Francisco, San Diego, or Boston.
We are committed to identifying, developing, and rewarding world-class talent, and, as such, all positions at Divergence Labs come with market-leading cash and equity compensation.
Divergence Labs
Divergence Labs is a technology-driven biopharmaceutical company dedicated to transforming bold biologic insights into breakthrough medicines. We relentlessly hunt for the highest expected value opportunities and pursue a deliberate, rigorous process to realize them. Led by life science investing and drug development veterans, we're assembling the industry's highest performance team - uniting investment acumen, world‑class protein engineering, advanced computational science, and translational medicine - to create medicines that set new standards of value and impact. Divergence Labs has presence across San Francisco, San Diego, Boston, and Cambridge, UK.
The Role
We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Director / Vice President of Antibody Engineering to join our Central Research team in Cambridge, UK (Granta Park). The role of Central Research is to maximize Divergence's probability of designing and selecting exceptional molecules which differentiate from competitors. The Director / Vice President of Antibody Engineering would have direct responsibility for designing, discovering, and managing the characterization of all antibody programs within Divergence Labs. They would also collaborate heavily with our Engineering team to establish methods to reliably collect, analyze, and learn from millions of disease-relevant datapoints, informing identification and selection of molecules differentiated from competitors.
As a Director / Vice President of Antibody Engineering, you will play a crucial role in our interdisciplinary team to turn our investment ideas into highly developable molecules that adequately express our biological hypotheses. This is a Leadership role within Divergence, where you will have the opportunity to:
* Drive decision making on construct design, format, and selection of discovery tools for all new programs alongside our Investment team
* Present antibody discovery strategies to R&D Committee alongside our Investment team to justify capital commitment in new programs
* Advocate for acquisition or creation of new technologies for accelerated antibody design, expression, and characterization and support integration with the Engineering team
* Lead experimental design, protocol development, and execution for new drug discovery projects for all R&D programs within Divergence Labs
* Manage the design and validation of cellular assays for the functional characterization of engineered biologics and mentor Molecular Biology and Assay Development Scientists (
ideal candidates have the drive and desire to act as our UK Site Head
)
* Collaborate with our Engineering team to convert and validate cellular assays to ultra-high-throughput format, enabling the exploration of up to millions of potential molecular designs
* Gain true end-to-end visibility across the drug discovery and development continuum and contribute to our high-performing, collegial culture
Additionally, as a member of the broader Divergence team, you will gain exposure to our Investment Team and R&D Committee, comprised of investment professionals from leading hedge funds and venture capital firms, as well as drug developers who have repeatedly brought medicines from concept to approval, including former Heads of R&D, Heads of Discovery, and Heads of Development from iconic biopharmaceutical companies, such as Genentech, Bioverativ, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Argenx, among others. We all work together as one team and one culture to shift the probability and impact of biopharma R&D.
Responsibilities
* Turn Our Ideas into Molecules
: Play a central role in ideating, designing, discovering, and validating all new antibody-based therapeutic programs across Divergence Labs.
* Manage UK Research Site
: Act as the de novo UK Site Head of Divergence Labs, managing all operational aspects of UK Research, including mentoring Scientific team, establishing and validating new assays, recommending investments in new capabilities, and owning relationships with outsourced research services providers.
* Support Operating Activities
: Assist in developing clear, concise presentations articulating our R&D approach and any improvements for senior management, R&D Committee, and the Board of Directors.
* Play as a Team
: Collaborate closely with other Leadership, the Engineering team, and Investment team to initiate projects, kill ideas, iterate on solutions, and improve our overall discovery process.
Required Skills & Experience
* Deep interest in the biopharmaceutical industry, drug discovery, and translational medicine
* "Fingerprints" on clinical-stage program or approved product that you are highly proud of
* 7+ years of experience in antibody discovery, whether within a startup, contract research organization, or mid-to-large biotechnology or biopharmaceutical company
* Extensive experience in lead optimization, including affinity maturation and engineering of stability, expression, aggregation, and other key characteristics
* Demonstrated capability to engineer and develop more complex antibody engineering formats, including but not limited to multispecific antibodies
* Deep experience in overseeing mammalian cell culture, fluorescence-based assays, primary cell assays, and cloning of large protein libraries
* Demonstrated analytical and quantitative abilities, with intellectual flexibility and drive required to design new solutions to complex problems from scratch
* Excellent interpersonal skills and efficient communication
* Strong background in biochemistry, biology, biophysics, or another discipline relevant for antibody engineering (Ph.D. a plus, but not required)
Cultural Profile
At Divergence Labs, our culture is built on a foundation of intellectual honesty, independence of thought, and a relentless commitment to excellence. We believe in fostering a collaborative environment where every team member feels empowered to contribute and grow. We are looking for individuals who embody the following characteristics and can fit in with a high-performing team of drug hunters, investment professionals, and engineers:
* Intellectual Honesty
: We value candid and open discussion. Our team admits when wrong, advocates when right, and never shies away from constructive feedback.
* Bias for Action:
We take initiative and ownership of our work, actively seeking out new ideas, and taking well-researched and smart risks.
* Team First Attitude
: We win as a team and lose as a team. There are "no egos" at Divergence Labs, and we understand great ideas can come from anywhere.
* Independence of Thought
: We think critically and challenge assumptions. When it suits us, we develop hypotheses that may run counter to consensus, "zigging while others are zagging."
* Resilience:
Drug development is a tough sport. We persevere in the face of challenge.
* Embrace the Unfamiliar:
We are humbled and excited by how much there is left to learn.
Next Steps
Interested candidates can reach out to with their resume and two to three sentences expressing their interest.