Principal Recruiter
Materials, Polymers & Coatings
View profileWhy consider a career as a Protein Scientist?
A career in Protein Science exposes you to an array of amazing opportunities. The industry is very rapidly expanding with the increase in preclinical drug discovery and the application of machine learning to protein science. Protein Scientists support drug discovery projects that transform healthcare and be a part of the journey to discover cures for untreatable diseases.
What a job or career in Protein Science may entail…
As a Protein Scientist, you will be working in a laboratory mostly involved in drug discovery projects. The area of “protein science” is very broad and varied.
Typical role titles include
Protein Biochemist
Protein Scientist
Drug Discovery Scientist
Protein Production Scientist
Protein Purification Scientist
Protein Characterisation Scientist
Career progression example
Junior Protein Scientist
Protein Scientist
Senior Protein Scientist
Principal Protein Scientist
Head of Protein Science
Associate Director
Director
Salary Benchmarks
alaries are dependent on the company and the exact areas of responsibility of each role. Generally, roles based in Cambridge, London and Oxford will be higher paying than anywhere else in the UK as these are the hubs for science with many companies competing for top talent. The below are a rough benchmark.
Junior Protein Scientist – Usually someone who has a master’s degree with a year in industry or someone who has done a placement year. People can get into Protein Science directly from a master but would need to be highly relevant to the company. Salaries for these roles range from £25,000 to £30,000.
Protein Scientist – Usually someone who has a master’s and a couple of years’ experience, or someone who has done a PhD and is looking to go straight into industry. The salary guide for this is between £35,000 – £45,000.
Senior Protein Scientist – Usually someone who has a few years’ experience in Protein Science. This is normally someone who has a PhD with a postdoc that has been about 2/3 years or someone who has a master’s with about 5 years’ experience in industry. Salaries for these roles tend to be between £45,000 and £60,000.
Principal Protein Scientist – Usually someone who is a real expert in the field and has extensive experience working within the space. They tend to bring at least 10 years’ experience. Salaries for this kind of role could be between £65,000 – £85,000.
Head of Protein Science – Salaries for senior posts of this kind tend to sit between £75,000 to £100,000.
Is it right for me? The skills it takes…
There are a lot of different skills that can lead to different paths, but the typical skills listed on job specifications are:
There is a range of different protein targets that can be worked on and they depend on the company, but these can be membrane proteins, monoclonal antibodies, multi-valent biologics, antibodies, T-cells, peptide-HLA’s and a large number of others. Most people in the space will have specific experience working within one of these and will then stay within this area for their whole career.
What qualifications does it take?
The majority of clients within in this field will look for a PhD or master’s, that is heavily focused on Protein Science, plus industry experience is a benefit depending on the level of the role.
We connect ambitious organisations with their greatest assets, equally ambitious talent.
Hybrid - Two days a month in Oxford.
Competitive Salary + Benefits
Full details
06th Dec
Acting as an extension of the LabGenius team, we ensured that candidates met both the cultural and technical requirements to succeed. We successfully placed a range of talent, for niche Protein Characterisation, Protein Production, High-throughput screening, Cell Biologists to Assistant Laboratory Managers, Laboratory Technicians and People Managers, as well as IT and Software Engineers, Engineering Managers and Delivery Managers.
It is incredibly rare to find a recruiter who instantly understands the company-wide needs and culture, Biohm's unique philosophy and approach, and the radical first-of-their-kind biotechnologies that we develop. We were very privileged to find Zoe, who has single-handedly, with her expansive network, had a transformational impact on our team and company by recruiting unique, perfectly aligned, highly sought after, and difficult to find niche talent. It is an absolute joy to have worked with Zoe on the big recruitment push we experienced this year and look forward to many more in the future.
Using a combination of contingency and search-based recruitment, combined with our niche experience within the microbiome and genome engineering space, we helped them secure highly skilled Scientists and Laboratory talent for their "Science Creates" site in Bristol, from a Senior Scientist, QC Scientist, Senior Research Scientist, to multiple Support Scientists and a Fermentation Scientist requirement.
Leveraging our scientific background and deep understanding of the company’s goals, we conducted targeted headhunting efforts to identify top-tier, niche talent. We successfully placed a high-caliber scientific team within the required timeframe, helping Epitopea build a strong foundation for future growth. We continue to support their hiring needs as the company expands.
Zoe has been a fantastic recruitment partner for Colorifix over the past few years, successfully supporting us on a wide variety of mandates. She is quick to understand what is needed and consistently provides high quality candidates.
We’ve outlined the average salaries and day rates received for Bitotech roles.
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A snapshot of salary bandings across different seniority levels within BioScience.
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Here are the average Material Science salaries in the UK.
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