Production Microbiologist – Fermentation Biotechnology​/Molecular Biology

Production Microbiologist – Fermentation Biotechnology / Molecular Biology Key Responsibilities Microbiology & Cell Culture Operations

• Lead daily microbiology laboratory activities supporting commercial fermentation operations, including aseptic inoculation, propagation, and maintenance of bacterial cultures.
• Prepare and sterilize fermentation media, buffers, and process solutions.
• Perform microbial plating, contamination monitoring, Gram staining, microscopy, and morphology tracking.
• Develop and improve contamination detection workflows for bacterial, fungal, and bacteriophage identification in process streams and environmental samples.
• Maintain microbial culture collections, master cell banks, and working cell banks with validated traceability systems and electronic inventory management.
• Design and execute microbial engineering strategies to improve strain robustness, productivity, metabolic performance, and process consistency in industrial fermentation applications.

• Support development and optimization of molecular and biochemical assays including RT-PCR, ELISA, and other rapid diagnostic methods.
• Operate, troubleshoot, calibrate, and maintain analytical instrumentation including HPLC, carbohydrate analyzers, balances, shakers, and related laboratory equipment.
• Analyze fermentation and analytical datasets using statistical and data visualization tools to identify process trends and continuous improvement opportunities.
• Contribute to experimental design, DOE studies, root cause investigations, and technical reports.

• Identify continuous improvement opportunities focused on improving process efficiency, contamination reduction, uptime, cost reduction, and operational stability.
• Collaborate with other laboratory personnel and provide technical guidance on aseptic techniques, microbial operations, analytical methods, and data interpretation.
• Maintain and improve SOPs, batch records, and laboratory documentation systems in compliance with site and quality requirements.
• Provide on‑call technical support and troubleshooting for critical fermentation and microbiology operations as needed.

• Collaborate closely with the R&D Manager to execute and support fermentation process development initiatives focused on improving productivity, titer, yield, process robustness, and manufacturing reliability.
• Assist in execution, monitoring, and documentation of 15L fed‑batch aerobic fermentation experiments designed by the R&D Manager and broader Manufacturing Technology team.
• Support fermentation optimization activities.
• Work alongside Operations, Engineering, and the R&D Manager to troubleshoot fermentation process deviations, contamination events, and operational performance issues.
• Support scale‑up and scale‑down process evaluation efforts through laboratory experimentation, data collection, and process observation.
• Assist with update, implementation, and maintenance of process monitoring systems, historical data review, and automation tools used in fermentation operations.
• Contribute technical observations and recommendations during experimental reviews, process investigations, and continuous improvement discussions.
• Support development of standardized fermentation practices, process documentation, and knowledge transfer across R&D and manufacturing teams.

• Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, or PhD in Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Biochemical Engineering, or related scientific discipline.
• 3+ years of experience in industrial biotechnology, fermentation process development, microbiology, or bioprocess R&D in a laboratory, manufacturing or pilot plant environment.
• Demonstrated experience operating and troubleshooting microbial growth systems, ideally fed‑batch aerobic bacterial fermentations.
• Fundamental understanding of fermentation scale‑up principles, process control strategies, and bioprocess analytics.
• Experience with molecular biology and contamination detection techniques including PCR, ELISA, and microbial identification methods.
• Strong analytical, statistical, and technical problem‑solving skills.
• De…