Associate Scientific Manager

It's a Perfect Day to change the world! At Perfect Day, we're doing just that.
Perfect Day was founded in 2014 to create delicious, nutritious dairy products that everyone can love. We’re using fermentation (not animals) to make dairy proteins that are the foundation for foods like ice cream, cheese and yogurt – all with the distinctive taste and textures that consumers demand, but without lactose or environmental downsides. Through partnerships with respected brands, we’re working to launch a whole range of dairy products that will help shape a humane, sustainable food system for future generations. 
Reporting to: Associate Director – Strain Engineering
Education Qualification & Experience:Ph.D. in Biotechnology / Microbiology / Molecular Biology with specialization in genetics and strain engineering of microorganisms such as  Yeast (Pichia / Saccharomyces), prokaryotic (Bacillus), Fungus (Aspergillus / Trichoderma / Penicillium) and, 2 - 4 years of industrial/postdoctoral experience
Overview:In this position, you will have responsibilities for developing & implementing strain improvement strategies for producing heterologous proteins, and for engineering strains which will become the workhorse for protein production at commercial scale.

Job Responsibilities:

• seeking a thorough understanding of the relevant microbial system and state of art technologies in heterologous expression,
• creating hypothesis-driven research proposals,
• conducting and evaluating laboratory-based research, and
• proposing newer strategies in an iterative manner, until project goals are achieved. 

Managerial capabilities:

• Mentoring junior researchers on research techniques and their professional development.
• Developing productive working relationships with scientists within the department, and other colleagues across R&D and non-R&D departments within the organization
• Supporting development of protocols, reports and SOPs, and ensuring proper documentation of research conducted in the lab.

Qualifications:

• A strong technical background in strain engineering and in manipulating microbes (Prokaryotic – E. coli, Bacillus strains), Yeast (Pichia pastoris / Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Kluveromyces lactis), Fungus (Aspergillus .sps / Trichoderma. sps / Penicillium. sps), including implementing gene expression and gene targeting/editing strategies to create knock-outs and knock-ins (e.g., CRISPR / other types of gene targeting technologies).
• Excellent hands-on and state of the art molecular biology laboratory skillset to create strategies for the construction of plasmids for over expression of proteins and/or genomic integrations of target genes in various organisms, for obtaining high levels of protein expression and/or creating relevant hosts for protein production.
• Thorough understanding of both prokaryotic and eukaryotic protein synthesis and protein secretory pathways, to  design strategies for regulating and optimizing organism’s abilities  to over express desired proteins.
• Strong background in developing novel high throughput techniques for culturing and screening strain libraries to identifying high producers, and also experience in developing simple enzyme based assays and basic knowledge in protein purification techniques.
• Demonstrated technical proficiency, scientific creativity, and ability to work both, independently, and via collaboration with others.
• Other desired skills include, excellent communication, ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, and good aptitude for data analysis and documentation.

Our culture: We seek people who are highly capable and eager to take up new challenges, motivated, enthusiastic, and who possess the right temperament to handle challenging circumstances, with abilities to create novel solutions. We believe in recognizing and rewarding talents with exceptional competencies and skills, and have programs to support their growth, development, and career aspirations.
It's a Perfect Day to change the world. The day when delicious dairy goodness is something everyone can love. The day we say goodbye to the downsides of factory farming. The day we throw a big party with luscious, animal-free milk, cheese, yogurt, and ice cream, all made with Perfect Day! We hope you join us!