Post Doctoral Fellow 2026 - GMU CMC Cell Culture Process Development

About the Job

Are you ready to shape the future of medicine? The race is on to speed up drug discovery and development to find answers for patients and their families. Your skills could be critical in helping our teams accelerate progress. 

The Genomic Medicine Unit (GMU) Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC) group at Sanofi is dedicated to establishing best-in-class manufacturing platforms for life-changing advanced gene therapy products, including recombinant Adeno-associated viral vectors (AAV) and non-viral gene therapies. We seek a highly motivated postdoctoral fellow to join our Cell Culture Process Development team, focusing on mechanistic and machine learning approaches to enhance AAV productivity and capsid quality in Producer Cell Lines (PCLs). This role offers significant opportunities to contribute to Sanofi's digital transformation and the next generation platform AAV manufacturing technology through collaboration with CMC teams and global process modeling groups.

We are an innovative global healthcare company with one purpose: to chase the miracles of science to improve people’s lives. We’re also a company where you can flourish and grow your career, with countless opportunities to explore, make connections with people, and stretch the limits of what you thought was possible. Ready to get started?

Main Responsibilities:

• Experimental Design & Execution: Independently plan and execute cell culture and bioreactor experiments, establishing clear objectives and data requirements for cell culture process model development.

• Data Collection & Analysis: Conduct bioreactor experiments to collect time-course data on cell culture metabolites, product titer, and capsid quality parameters.

• Model Development: Leverage hybrid mechanistic and predictive machine learning approaches to build cell culture models for productivity and quality prediction.

• Process Integration: Integrate predictive models with bioreactor control systems to enable real-time automated decision-making capabilities.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work effectively with multidisciplinary teams and communicate latest updates.

• Scientific Communication: Present scientific findings to diverse audiences.
  Draft technical reports and prepare manuscripts for external publications.

About You

Basic Qualifications:

• Must have a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Biochemical Engineering, Biomedical Sciences, Bioinformatics, Data Science, or related field with strong publication record demonstrating research excellence.

• Must be able to relocate to the office location and work 40hrs/week, Monday-Friday, for the full duration of the postdoc

• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python or R for data analysis and model development

• Must be authorized to work in the US for the full duration of the postdoc fellowship

Preferred Qualifications:

• Laboratory experience in mammalian cell culture with viral vector or biotherapeutics production background

• Experience in mechanistic modeling and data-driven approaches in cell culture process development.

• Hands-on experience with machine learning methodologies and their practical applications in cell culture

• Ability to work independently or with minimal supervision and collaborate in a highly matrixed environment

• Curious and bold in proposing creative experimental designs and ideas, planning and executing them to deliver results within defined time frame.

• Ability to work in Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2) lab, follow safe lab procedures, and maintain good laboratory practices including detail-oriented laboratory notebook documentation.

• Previous experience in pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry settings or experience within academic-industry collaboration settings.