Fermentation Process Development Engineer - PhD Level

• Full-time
• Compensation: USD 85,000 - USD 110,000 - yearly

The work we do at Eurofins Professional Scientific Services matters, and so do our employees. At Eurofins PSS, we put a focus on your professional growth. We provide our employees the ability to break into the biopharmaceutical industry and grow from the bottom up. We have the supportive teams and tools available to invest in you while also affording you work-life balance and a competitive benefits package.

Eurofins Scientific is an international life sciences company, providing a unique range of analytical testing services to clients across multiple industries, to make life and our environment safer, healthier and more sustainable. From the food you eat, to the water you drink, to the medicines you rely on, Eurofins works with the biggest companies in the world to ensure the products they supply are safe, their ingredients are authentic and labelling is accurate.

Eurofins believes it is a global leader in food, environmental, pharmaceutical and cosmetics products testing and in agroscience CRO services. It is also one of the global independent market leaders in certain testing and laboratory services for genomics, discovery pharmacology, forensics, CDMO, advanced material sciences and in the support of clinical studies.

Eurofins PSS is seeking an experienced scientist with a fermentation development background to assist in leading the development and scale-up of

E. coli fermentation processes at the front end of a novel, proprietary DNA manufacturing platform. Working at bench and pilot scale, the successful candidate will own the upstream unit operation end to end: designing the studies, running the bioreactors, interpreting the data, and converting what you learn into a process that is higher-yielding, more consistent, and robust enough to transfer to an external manufacturing partner.

The new hire will work closely with molecular biology, downstream purification, and analytical development, so that upstream decisions are made with full visibility into their downstream consequences. The documentation you generate will form the basis of the packages that support GLP studies and technology transfer to external partners.

• Design, execute, and optimize
  
  E. coli fermentation processes from shake flask through bench-scale and pilot-scale bioreactors, owning the experimental work hands-on.
• Drive measurable improvements in yield and batch-to-batch consistency through systematic optimization of host strain performance, media composition, feed strategy, induction conditions, and control setpoints for pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, and agitation.
• Using design of experiments, define the process design space and identify the critical process parameters that govern product quality and quantity, rather than relying on one-factor-at-a-time work.
• Establish scale-independent criteria (volumetric power input, oxygen transfer capacity, mixing time, and gas-phase mass balance) so that performance demonstrated at bench scale is reproducible at pilot scale and beyond.
• Develop clear, pre-specified experimental plans, analyze and interpret the resulting data with appropriate statistical rigor, and present conclusions and recommendations to cross-functional teams and leadership.
• Author thorough technical documentation (protocols, development reports, process descriptions, and process history) to a standard that will withstand external review.
• Generate the documentation packages needed to support downstream GLP studies and technology transfer to external partners and CDMOs, and support those partners through process fit assessments, engineering runs, and on-site…