Laboratory Scientist Apprentice

Cambridge, UK

Starting base salary of £21,500 + 11% benefits fund + bonus.

At AstraZeneca, we put patients first and strive to meet their unmet needs worldwide. We’re deeply committed to our strategy of being a great place to work. For us, that includes fostering an environment where everyone can be among inclusive, supportive individuals with curious minds.

A company that genuinely follows the science and values individuals at all levels, you’ll be backed and encouraged to speak up, ask questions, and share ideas to push the boundaries of science and continuously learn and explore.

Make the start of your journey a life changing one!

As part of our Early Talent Programme, you’ll be involved in projects and learning opportunities that have real impact from day one.

Being part of our journey and helping us to provide life changing medicine to patients all over the world and transform lives for the better. Making important contributions and embracing our values to deliver on our purpose. Because regardless of role or level, we all have an important part to play in making a positive difference.

Cambridge

Cambridge is one of the most exciting bioscience hotspots in the world. The Discovery Centre (DISC), located at the heart of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, is designed to play a central role in our mission to deliver life-changing medicines to patients. As our largest research and development centre in the UK, it will have more than 2,000 people working across therapy areas and drug discovery and development once fully occupied.

About the Apprenticeship Programme

We have several opportunities across various functions. Please state your preference on your application:

1. Metabolism Bioscience Research Team: This is a great opportunity to join the in vitro metabolism bioscience team within the cardiovascular renal and metabolism function. You will gain strong laboratory skills, excel as a team player and develop a first-rate understanding of metabolic disease research area, contributing to cutting edge science project in drug discovery for disease areas including diabetes, obesity, MASH and dyslipidaemia.

You will be trained to independently perform cell-based screening, data interpretation and analysis, and molecular biology procedures. As an Apprentice In Vitro Biologist you will have the opportunity to develop world class skills and knowledge in many areas of in vitro drug discovery.

You will be trained to perform a range of tasks from Basic Laboratory techniques such as Accurate weighing, pipetting plus reagent and buffer preparation and testing through to performing complex experiments in high throughput settings to profile different potential drug modalities in assays using a range of detection technologies.

Duties to include:

• Cell culture (cell lines and primary cells)

• Laboratory robotics and automation including acoustic liquid dispense

• Cell based and biochemical assays for analyte quantification (e.g. ELISA and MesoScale)

• High throughput assays using technologies such as fluorescence, luminescence

• Concentration response curve generation and data analysis

2. Bioassay Development Team: The Bioassay team develops technologically advanced biological assays. These assays test the drug’s biological activity (i.e., cell killing for cancer drugs), to progress drug candidates from discovery through the clinical stages to being a commercial product.

We support end-to-end biological testing and analytical characterisation of AstraZeneca’s potential future medicines including antibodies, bispecifics, ADCs and vaccines to treat many serious diseases, including cancer, asthma, and diabetes.

Your role will be multi-disciplinary and underpins the laboratory support operations, facilitating expert scientists to deliver the drug to patients. You will be fully supported by expert scientists to provide a learning environment and career opportunities.

3. Immune Oncology (IO) drug discovery Team: This is your opportunity to learn from a team of expert scientists in state-of-the-art laboratories and contribute to the development of cutting-edge anti-cancer therapies. Using the latest technologies, you will gain invaluable experience in how to develop, design, conduct and analyse in vitro experiments to assess the function of our candidate drugs and help to dissect the mechanism of action of our novel therapeutics that target the immune system to treat cancer.

Duties to include:

• Perform isolation and culturing of cells

• Carry out cell co-culture experiments with a variety of readouts including ELISA & flow cytometry and perform analysis of the results

• Undertake write ups of experiments and present findings to project teams

• Conduct literature reviews to gain greater understanding of the science behind the drugs

4. Analytical Sciences Group: This is a great opportunity to support analytical testing and protein characterisation activities aimed at providing an understanding of the structure, product quality and purity profile of biopharmaceutical products AstraZeneca develops for clinical studies.

The role will expose you to the full analytical toolbox used to gain molecule understanding impacting efficacy, safety, and stability of these biopharmaceutical products.

Duties to include:

• Run high-end analytical equipment, record and interpret observations, compile reports and present scientific findings.

• Laboratory robotics and automation including liquid handling systems.

• Work with colleagues to develop High-Through-put analytical methods.

• Collaborate with other functions to meet project timelines and company goals.

• Maintain accurate records of data and actively participate in laboratory organization.

• Ensure that work is performed in accordance with appropriate Safety, Health & Environment (SHE), quality and compliance standards.

Training and Development

AstraZeneca will sponsor you through your Lab Science Degree with one of our university providers, either Manchester Metropolitan University or North Eastern University London https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/laboratory-scientist-degree-v1-0

The apprenticeship combines working, earning a full-time salary, with fully funded part-time learning (on average 1 day/week). This will give you the opportunity to gain a Level 6 Lab Science degree qualification, just as you would if you went to university full-time, with the advantage of gaining relevant work-life skills and the excitement of helping to develop new medicines whilst taking your first steps towards a rewarding career.

We truly value Early Talent– their thoughts, ideas and contributions. So throughout the programme, you’ll be encouraged and inspired to speak up, have a voice and make an impact.

Skills and Capabilities

We would be looking for the following attributes from our successful applicants:

• Enthusiastic individuals who are keen to learn and with a genuine scientific curiosity

• Able to act independently but also to work and contribute in a team environment

• Good organisational skills with an excellent attention to detail & a proactive approach to problem solving

• The ability to work on multiple tasks and understanding how to prioritise

• Excellent verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills

Entry Requirements

Five GCSEs (or equivalent) grades 9 to 5 including Maths, English and Science

To have achieved or predicted to achieve a minimum of 3 A Levels at Grade

BBB (or equivalent Level 3 qualification) with at least one science subject of which one needs to be Biology

Benefits, open and close dates

To apply for this position, please click the apply link.

Opening date of advert: 22nd January 2024

Closing date of advert: 18th February 2024

Successful candidates will be asked to attend a virtual Assessment Day during w/c 18th March or w/c 25th March 2024

Should you require any reasonable adjustments or accommodations, please let us know on your application.

At AstraZeneca, we aim to set you up for success, and we recognise the challenges that starting a new job can bring. We therefore offer a relocation package to help with the costs and process of moving for candidates who currently live more than 60 minutes from the site location for this Apprenticeship.

Should you require any reasonable adjustments or accommodations, please let us know on your application.

This is a 4 -year fixed term contract opportunity.

Start date for the apprenticeship programme is 2nd September 2024

Where can I find out more?

Our Social Media, Follow AstraZeneca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/1603/

Inclusion & Diversity: https://careers.astrazeneca.com/inclusion-diversity

Career Site: https://careers.astrazeneca.com/

These positions are not open to those already educated to Bachelors degree level or above – for which we have specific Graduate Programmes, see our website for more details https://careers.astrazeneca.com/early-talent

Date Posted

Closing Date