Lead Scientist, Analytics

About the Company

Helaina is a cutting-edge nutrition biotech company creating nutrients of the future. Helaina leverages a world-class team to develop breakthrough ingredients designed to improve health for everyone.

The company's vision is to build a nutrient platform that powers the future of consumer health through bioactive proteins. Our journey was inspired by breast milk — a unique substance that is both food and medicine. Helaina's Founder, Laura Katz, saw consumers seeking out these proteins for their proven ability to boost immunity, gut health, and brain development. Helaina was founded on the belief that we could replicate this profound function to create ingredients with real impact.

Helaina's first ingredient, effera™, is a “holy grail” molecule that is an identical replica of human lactoferrin, one of breast milk's most powerful proteins. As a dynamic bioactive protein, effera™ can adapt to the body's specific needs, offering multiple benefits:

• supports iron absorption and women's health

• boosts immunity by fighting infections

• crosses the blood-brain barrier for cognitive benefits

• reduces inflammation for sports recovery and longevity

About the Role

In this role, you'll contribute directly to Helaina's milestones by designing, performing, and troubleshooting experiments toward the Analytics team's objectives — and leading that team's day-to-day delivery. This is an excellent opportunity for someone hungry to work in a startup environment and ready to make a big impact on the future of nutrition. This is a full-time, on-site, lab-based role at Helaina's NYC office.

What you'll do:

• Lead the development and validation of analytical methods for characterization of recombinant proteins and food ingredients — including sample preparation and physicochemical analysis of lactoferrin and other proteins by techniques such as HPLC, LC-MS, and SDS-PAGE

• Provide analytical support to R&D on strain engineering and process development for expression and production of recombinant proteins

• Provide analytical support for product characterization across food applications to support client requests from our commercial team

• Own daily operation and maintenance of major equipment, including (U)HPLC and mass-spectrometry systems

• Perform method development, transfer, validation, and operations — including release and stability studies — for food ingredients and finished products

• Work with external resources including CROs and CMOs/CDMOs to advance company objectives and milestones

• Provide technical support for regulatory filings, health-authority questions, change control, and quality impact assessments

• Analyze, interpret, and present data to internal and external audiences

• Own project planning and execution at the team level — escalating risks proactively, enforcing quality and process standards, and developing the analytics team

About you:

• You have a PhD, MS, or BS in analytical chemistry, analytical biochemistry, biochemistry, biology, chemistry, or a related scientific discipline, with 10+ years of in-lab experience in a biotech or academic setting

• You have deep knowledge of analytical techniques for protein purification and analysis, such as chromatography (RP, IEX, SEC, and HILIC)

• You have deep expertise in mass-spectrometry characterization of proteins, including intact protein measurement, peptide mapping, and glycosylation and other post-translational-modification analysis

• You have experience developing and validating proteomics and metabolomics workflows

• You have deep expertise analyzing and communicating complex mass-spectrometry data (experience with Skyline, Spectronaut, MaxQuant, and UniDec is preferred)

• You have a strong working knowledge of analytical method development, validation, transfer, and root-cause analysis

• You are an effective communicator — within a collaborative scientific team and in translating science for non-technical audiences

• You are eager to make an impact in a team environment, and you are energetic, creative, and personally motivated by the future of food and/or biological products

• Spectroscopy (UV, fluorescence, CD) and SDS-PAGE/western blotting are a plus

• Bonus points for prior applied experience with recombinant-protein purification and analysis, and for publications in peer-reviewed journals, patents, SOPs, and/or regulatory filings

Benefits

Helaina was founded on the belief that families should have freedom of choice. We are committed to providing an inclusive workplace that supports our team's health and wellbeing. A few highlights:

• Medical, vision, and dental coverage

• Short and long-term disability insurance

• 401k match (up to 3%)

• Unlimited vacation days, including an all-company holiday between Christmas and New Year

• Paid Parental Leave for both parents + flexible return-to-work program

• Commuter Benefits

Learn more about Helaina: https://www.myhelaina.com/news

Helaina is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Don't meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Helaina we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace — if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification listed, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be the strongest candidate for this or other roles. For more information, contact careers@myhelaina.com.

All candidates must be available to work on-site at Helaina's office in NYC.

Compensation is market-competitive with a yearly cash base of $110k – $160k plus equity.

We use a disciplined approach to compensation — we believe this is the only way to create a consistent, strategic, and equitable structure that unlocks healthy growth for our organization. We decide any hire's offer based on three factors: (1) expected performance in the role, based on performance in the interview process and proximity of experience; (2) seniority, meaning amount of relevant experience; and (3) location, reflecting different costs of living.