Scientist, Research Scientist, Biotech Research

About This Role

This scientist role focuses on developing nutraceutical and pharmaceutical ingredients using enzymatic cell-free systems. The position is ideal for an experienced scientist with an engineering mindset or an engineer with scientific curiosity, who has a background in biochemistry, chemical biology, or chemical/biological engineering. The successful candidate will translate new product innovations from bench-scale results into scalable manufacturing processes.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate cross-functionally to design, assemble, and optimize cell-free, multi-enzyme pathways and biocatalytic reaction systems from bench through early process scale, targeting specifications for yield, purity, and activity
• Develop and execute biochemical assays to characterize enzyme kinetics, stability, and selectivity
• Independently evaluate purified proteins and enzyme variants and interpret results to drive project decisions
• Apply disciplined experimental approaches (e.g., DoE) to develop robust, cost-efficient biosolutions from prototype through technology transfer to manufacturing
• Establish robust, reproducible biocatalyst test methods that generate reliable, comparable data independent of experiment, operator, or time
• Define clear, data-driven acceptance criteria that translate experimental results into actionable go/no-go decisions across enzyme candidates and unit operations
• Develop and improve assay and screening platforms to advance throughput, sensitivity, and scalability for enzyme characterization and variant selection
• Systematically and methodically approach translating preliminary results into a robust process through structured multivariate optimization and data-driven experimental iteration
• Partner with process development engineers to support scale-up of biocatalytic and cell-free reactions from bench to the 1–100 L range, identifying and resolving technical challenges at each scale transition
• Contribute to development and optimization of downstream isolation and purification methods for small molecules from complex biocatalytic mixtures, with attention to yield, purity, and scalability
• Build mechanistic and empirical models to support scale translation and third-party technology transfer

Requirements

• PhD in biochemistry, chemical biology, chemical/biological engineering, or a closely related field, with 3–5 years of relevant industry or postdoctoral experience; OR MS in one of these fields, with 5–8 years of industry experience
• Demonstrated ability to independently design experiments, troubleshoot complex technical problems, and communicate findings clearly to cross-functional teams
• Proven track record of rigorous scientific documentation, including peer-reviewed publication, and/or technical reports, SOP development, as well as meticulous laboratory record keeping consistent with industry quality standards