Scientist II, Metabolic Engineering

Joyn Bio is an ag-biotech company developing more sustainable ways to feed the world. Started by agriculture and synthetic biology leaders Bayer and Ginkgo Bioworks, Joyn Bio is engineering beneficial microbes found in the environment to improve naturally occurring processes like nitrogen fixation. With exclusive access to Ginkgo Bioworks’ automated foundries for biological engineering and Bayer’s crop science expertise, Joyn Bio is delivering the scale and power of synthetic biology to agriculture. Joyn Bio brings together scientists with diverse backgrounds at its two sites in Boston, Massachusetts and Woodland, California to develop new microbial solutions that address growers’ biggest challenges. For more information please visit www.joynbio.com.

Objective

• Joyn Bio is looking for a Scientist who will contribute to the characterization, engineering and screening of R&D processes aimed at improving Gram-positive microorganisms for large scale commercial agriculture applications.

Responsibilities

• Ideate, design, execute experiments and develop methods and protocols to engineer and optimize metabolic pathways in various Gram-positive organisms. 
• Innovate and advance molecular and synthetic biology, multi-omics, enzymology, and related technologiesfor designing and implementing the construction of plasmids, strains, and enzymes to facilitate bacterial engineering efforts. 
• Work closely with Program Directors to develop strain engineering strategies that are aligned with defined objectives and drive the technical strategy on a day-to-day basis. 
• Collaborate with the Microbial Engineering, Plant Microbe Interaction, Bioprocessing Formulation and Downstream Processing, Digital Sciences and Technology, Regulatory and Legal teams to develop innovative and collaborative approaches for solving technical problems as well as commercially relevant processes. 
• Champion the expansion of Joyn Bio’s capabilities by exploring new technologies and strategies to improve experimental throughput and support automation efforts. 
• Draft and manage Technical Project Plans in collaboration with research partners and CROs.

Training/Experience

• PhD with 5+ years (or MS with 8+ years) of experience in bacterial metabolic engineering, microbiology, microbial physiology, molecular biology and/or related fields is required for consideration.
• Proven track record for application of synthetic biology tools for development of industrially relevant microbial hosts. Non-model organism metabolic engineering is highly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to reach targeted goals though design, construction, and testing of strains and metabolic pathways; hands-on experience with metabolic modeling is a plus.
• Familiarity with bioinformatic analysis of NGS data, and complex libraries of in silico constructs and genomes.
• Must be a detail oriented, highly organized, and collaborative self-starter with excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills.
• Project management and supervisory experience is highly preferred.

Organizational

• Will report into the Head of Microbial Engineering.
• May manage projects and work packages.
• May lead research associates.
• Working 75% of the time at the bench is essential for success in this role.

Location

• This position will be based at our Boston, Massachusetts site, and will require minimal travel.