Research Associate, Plant Biology

Indigo is working to harness nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet. Indigo’s Biological Products, Marketplace, and Carbon offerings improve grower profitability, environmental sustainability, and consumer health. The Biological Products organization has developed products based upon our deep understanding of the plant microbiome. The company has commercialized these products for cotton, wheat, barley, corn, soybeans, and rice in North America, Latin America, and Europe under the biotrinsic™ brand. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA, with additional offices in Memphis, TN, Research Triangle Park, NC, Basel, Switzerland, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and São Paulo, Brazil. www.indigoag.com

The Plant Biology team, a cross-functional group of scientists within Indigo, is looking to hire a Research Associate to investigate how microbial-plant interactions can contribute to regenerative land-management practices through effective water and nutrient utilization. This Research and Development team works across early-stage product discovery platforms and collaborates closely with product development and commercial offering teams in Indigo.

The Research Associate will be responsible for organizing and performing assays to measure the efficacy of our microbes in their ability to successfully interact with both commercial cash crops to influence desired traits. Day-to-day activities include experimental setup according to agreed designs; preparation of microbial inoculum for plant seed treatments; collection, and quality control curation of phenotypic data enabling product advancement decisions; development of novel assays to efficiently identify effective microbes while ensuring biological relevance; and working across functions to coordinate necessary up- and down-stream processes required for a successful testing pipeline. Job title and compensation will be in line with level of education and experience

Responsibilities:

• Organizing screening activities to optimize throughput and data quality
• Make solutions and media necessary for growing healthy microbes and plants
• Work closely with the discovery teams to develop and implement new assays
• Collect and handle phenotypic data to support the capture of intellectual property
• Enable success of fellow research assistants through active mentoring and skill sharing
• Ensure compliance to all local, state, and federal regulations regarding the handling and devitalization of plant pests and other regulated microbes
• Participate in and contribute to our strong commitment to safety

Key Competencies:

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to manage more than one workstream at a time, good managerial and time management skills
• Ability to work efficiently across functions and with diverse teams of collaborators spanning disciplines and geographies
• Critical thinking. Attention to detail and precise record keeping
• Ability to characterize plants and optimize phenotyping processes
• Ability to work independently and efficiently across functions
• Ability to maintain data integrity while automating simple data handling tasks
• Ability to follow and author effective SOPs
• Agility; comfortable with change/ambiguity
• Curious; strong desire to continue learning and developing
• Ability to troubleshoot technical challenges

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree with 5 years of experience required in plant biology or microbiology, required
• Experience in plant biology research and handling research data, required
• Minimal travel and some weekend work required
• Experience in plant phenotyping and plant biology strongly
• Experience in a programming language (e.g. VBA, Python, R), preferred

Indigo is committed to living our values, specifically “creating a work environment where everyone feels respected, connected, and has opportunities to learn and grow.” As part of living our values, we strive to create a diverse and inclusive work environment where everyone feels they can be themselves and has an equal opportunity of succeeding