Senior Engineer III, ADME

Boston, Massachusetts

Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe’s growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our bioengineers make use of an in-house automated foundry for designing and building new organisms. 

Here at Ginkgo, we are aiming to modernize ADME by bringing our experience in high-throughput screening to the in vitro small molecule drug pipeline. We are re-imagining ADME at scale, and we are seeking a visionary and technically adept High-Throughput ADME Scientist to help us build and execute this next-generation platform. This role is critical in accelerating our drug discovery pipeline by providing timely and high-quality in vitro ADME (Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, and Excretion) data to guide lead optimization.

The ideal candidate will possess deep technical expertise in developing, validating, and implementing a variety of high-throughput ADME assays.

Key Responsibilities

Assay Development & Implementation

• Design, develop, optimize, and validate a wide array of high-throughput in vitro ADME assays (e.g., solubility, MDCK permeability, plasma protein binding, microsomal stability, hepatocyte stability, and CYP inhibition/induction).
• Automation and Screening: Experience working with automated liquid handlers such as Hamilton, Lynx, Bravo, and Formulatrix.

Data Analysis & Reporting

• Develop and perform mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS, acoustic ejection mass spectrometry, or similar) analysis of samples from ADME assays. Responsibilities will include method development and troubleshooting.
• Ensure proper sample preparation and management for high-throughput analysis.
• Analyze, interpret, and report complex ADME data, including calculating key pharmacokinetic parameters.
• Present results and provide expert recommendations to medicinal chemists and project teams to inform go/no-go decisions.

Quality & Compliance

• Maintain detailed and accurate laboratory records, SOPs, and electronic notebooks.
• Ensure all laboratory activities comply with internal quality standards and safety regulations.

Operational ownership & risk management

• Lead day‑to‑day operations of the ADME team 
• Build and maintain “buttoned‑up” SOPs, runbooks, checklists, and QC dashboards for all established assays.

Cross‑functional partnership

• Collaborate with computational and data teams on metadata schemas, QC metrics, and analysis‑ready outputs.
• Work closely with program leads to scope work, set expectations, and communicate progress and risks.
• Contribute to portfolio and capacity planning, including scenarios for large campaigns.

Leadership, mentoring, and training

• Provide technical leadership and day‑to‑day guidance for scientists on ADME workflows.
• Contribute to the Datapoints skill matrix by defining training levels, shadowing plans, and up‑leveling team members on key assays 
• Document methods, “tips & tricks”, and troubleshooting guides; lead trainings and onboarding sessions.

Minimum Qualifications

• Education: Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmacology, Analytical Chemistry, or a related field with 7+ years of relevant industry experience, or a Master’s degree with 12+ years of industry experience.
• Technical Expertise:
• Extensive, hands-on experience with LC-MS or acoustic MS particularly in a high-throughput setting.
• Proven track record in developing and running automated in vitro ADME assays using state-of-the-art laboratory automation.
• Strong theoretical and practical knowledge of drug metabolism pathways and DMPK.
• Familiarity with common ADME prediction software and data visualization tools.

 Preferred Skills

• • Experience using lab automation.
  • Programmatic coding experience (e.g., Python, R, or similar).
  • Data visualization (Spotfire, Python, R, or similar).