Senior Bioinformatician - Target Discovery

If you're a bioinformatician with an interest in the commercial side of drug discovery and the ability to provide scientific leadership within a collaborative team, this role offers the opportunity to contribute to OBT's proteomics-based target discovery efforts and help drive the development of innovative therapeutics.

About Oxford Biotherapeutics (OBT) 

Oxford Biotherapeutics (OBT) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing innovative antibody-based therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. You will contribute directly to the pre-clinical development of our immuno-oncology pipeline. 

Our proprietary OGAP® platform, the world’s largest cancer-specific membrane protein library, enables the discovery of novel, highly tumour-specific antigens for first-in-class ADC, Bispecific T-cell Engager (BITE®), and CAR-based therapeutics. Our lead asset, OBT076, is in Phase 1b clinical development, supported by a strong internal and partnered pipeline with leaders such as Roche, GSK, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Zymeworks. 

Learn more at www.oxfordbiotherapeutics.com. 

Introduction to the role 

Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Bioinformatics and Information Systems in Bioinformatics, you will oversee the mining and annotation of OBT's proprietary proteomics dataset to identify and research candidate targets for cancer therapeutics. This will involve interfacing with the commercial team, scoping incoming questions, timelines, and turning analysis into answers that support partnering and portfolio decisions. 

This role will suit someone who works well at pace and is energised by commercial conversations as well as by the science. A sound computational background is expected, but the role places greater emphasis on organisation, judgement and communication than on method development. 

The position is office-based at the Oxford Science Park, supporting close daily collaboration with the scientific and commercial teams, with occasional travel. 

Key Responsibilities 

Business and partnering support 

• Attend and contribute to business and partnering discussions, following up on the analysis they generate. 

• Scope and deliver analyses in response to requests from colleagues across the business, maintaining a clear view of the team's commitments. 

• Prepare and present analysis summaries and supporting materials for internal decision-making and external partner discussions. 

Target discovery leadership 

• Manage the bioinformatics target discovery activity: plan, prioritise and direct the mining and annotation of OBT's proprietary proteomics dataset to identify and verify candidate targets for therapeutic programmes. 

• Provide the analysis and recommendations that inform target selection and prioritisation. 

• Carry out hands-on analysis where needed to support the team. 

Quality and standards 

• Oversee the quality, consistency and reproducibility of the target annotation produced by the team, ensuring that conclusions are clearly evidenced and traceable to the underlying data. 

• Maintain and improve the standard workflows, templates and documentation. 

Management and collaboration 

• Supervise target mining and annotation. 

• Collaborate across the Bioinformatics team and with cross-functional colleagues to support company goals. 

Required Skills & Experience 

Qualifications and experience 

• Master's degree or PhD in bioinformatics, computational biology, or a related life science discipline. 

• 5+ years of relevant experience in bioinformatics or computational biology, in industry or academia. 

Scientific domain knowledge 

• Knowledge of cancer biology and targeted cancer therapeutics.

• Experience with proteomics, particularly mass spectrometry-based proteomics. 

• Familiarity with protein annotation and expression resources. 

Technical skills 

• Proficiency in Python and R, sufficient to interrogate large datasets independently and review the team's work. 

Organisation and planning 

• Strong organisational skills: able to plan, prioritise and track multiple concurrent requests. 

• Able to plan the team's work and adjust it as new questions come in. 

Communication and commercial awareness 

• Confident, proactive communicator who works well with commercial and non-scientific colleagues and is comfortable presenting analysis in meetings. 

• Ability to translate questions into well-scoped analyses and communicate the results clearly to different audiences. 

• Genuine interest in the commercial and partnering side of drug discovery. 

Desirable Experience 

Commercial and partnering 

• Experience gained in a commercial or business-facing environment (e.g., business development, alliance management, partnering, consulting or vendor-facing roles). 
• Experience preparing analysis or materials for partner-facing or investor-facing discussions. 

Benefits Offered

• Private health care

• Health Cash Plan 

• Generous pension scheme with potential employer contribution of up to 10% (based on match contributions) 

• Discretionary annual bonus scheme 

• Free onsite parking 

• Complimentary office snacks 

• Enhanced holiday entitlement above statutory minimum plus public holidays  

• Employee Referral Bonus Program 

• Annual training budget for professional development 

• New hire share options 
• Team building events and activities 

Equal Opportunities Statement 

We are committed to equality of opportunity for all employees and applications from individuals are encouraged regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships. 

Why Join Us 

At OBT, we foster a culture of innovation, ownership, and collaboration. By bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise, we aim to develop novel therapies to address some of the most challenging diseases.

Our people describe our environment as friendly, collaborative, and driven. We are committed to creating a workplace where individuals feel supported, valued, and empowered to contribute built on a foundation of trust, creativity, and mutual respect.