Fermentation and bioprocessing scientist​/engineer

Pheronym Fermentation and bioprocessing scientist/engineer Woodland, CA
· Full time Apply for Fermentation and bioprocessing scientist/engineer

Create the future of agriculture! Farmers can lose the majority of their crops without pest control. At the same time, there are concerns with the toxicity and environmental impact of traditional chemical controls. These concerns have led to regulation and outright bans on specific pesticides around the globe. Farmers and society demand climate- and eco-friendly alternatives to control pests. Our company, Pheronym, turned to nature to win the battle against pests.

We chose pheromones, communication signals, to protect our crops. Pheronym uses nematode pheromones to control agricultural pests, providing climate-friendly alternatives to soil fumigants and improving soil health. In other words, Pheronym enables farmers to control pests in the soil using climate- and eco-friendly solutions. A fermentation and bioprocessing scientist/engineer is needed to optimize fermentation of nematodes and downstream processing for small molecule production.

It includes transitioning from shaker flasks to bioreactors

Create the future of agriculture!

Farmers can lose the majority of their crops without pest control. At the same time, there are concerns about the toxicity and environmental impact of traditional chemical controls. These concerns have led to regulation and outright bans on specific pesticides around the globe. Farmers and society demand climate- and eco-friendly alternatives to control pests.

Our company, Pheronym, turned to nature to win the battle against pests. We chose pheromones, communication signals, to protect our crops. Pheronym uses nematode pheromones to control agricultural pests, providing climate-friendly alternatives to soil fumigants and improving soil health. In other words, Pheronym enables farmers to control pests in the soil using climate- and eco-friendly solutions.

Primary Job Responsibilities/Duties

• Maintain a high standard of lab safety culture and design for safe operations
• Develop new or improve existing fermentation process by employing knowledge of bioreactor design, reviewing journal articles or other related strategies.
• Perform small scale (microtiter plate, tube and shake flask) studies to screen for different process parameters and media components.
• Setup, operate and monitor fermentation processes ranging from 1 to 300 L and also operate associated sensors and lab equipment.
• Develop strategies to improve the overall reliability and productivity of fermentation processes.
• Collaborate with R&D, QC and production teams for day-to-day operations and product needs.
• Independently select techniques and procedures to solve problems within area of responsibility.
• Develop, evaluate and implement detailed experimental projects within area of responsibility.
• Draw conclusions, present project results and make technical recommendations to the team
• Handle and protect confidential and sensitive data with integrity.
• Perform related work and other duties, as assigned
• Implement strong communication skills across multi-disciplinary teams
• Write and maintain data, analysis, and reports of your projects and standard operating procedures

Qualifications/Required Skills

• Hands‑on experience with benchtop bioreactors operation, maintenance, and related control software such as Eppendorf, Sartorius, Applikon or similar systems is a must.
• Highly knowledgeable and hands‑on experience with fermentation designs, concepts, principles, and operations
• Experience in developing fermentation processes including batch, fed batch and continuous fermentation and knowledge in high‑throughput fermentation screening
• Experience with media and process optimization to improve fermentation titers
• Proven experience independently designing and troubleshooting fermentation experiments.
• Experience with bacteria (nematodes is a plus) and standard microbiology techniques and principles.
• Experience in batch control and QA/QC
• Proficient in aseptic techniques (BSL1 and BSL2) for microbial growth as well as testing
• Experience with process scale‑up is a must
• Expert in standard…