Scientist I, High Throughput Screening

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. 
As the newest member of the High Throughput Screening team, you will optimize our plate model to improve our plate to tank correlation. The High Throughput Screening team is a fast-paced and multidisciplinary team, and we need a motivated and proactive Scientist to identify gaps in our plate model and work with the Fermentation team to enhance the predictive capacity of our small-scale cultivations.
As a Scientist I, you need to have a strong scientific background in microbiology or biochemical engineering with a good understanding of the impact of different cultivation conditions on KPIs. You also need to have a proven track record of high throughput screening assay development and plate model optimization. Your focus will be on the improvement of our plate model to reliably identify new production strains. In addition, an ideal candidate will introduce new technology for strain screenings in ml format. This work will enable our effort to reduce the number of bioreactors needed for strain screenings and expand our capacity to compare strain performance in small scale cultivations. A preferred candidate is familiar with the physiology of filamentous fungi and their use in bench scale fermentation processes. If you enjoy working on diverse problems in a collaborative team, this is the role for you! A successful candidate will have prior industry experience working in teams to bring in new techniques and build robust models for plate to tank correlation. Mentoring of junior team members will be required.

YOUR CONTRIBUTION:

• Essential functions
• Improving small scale fermentations and aligning results to bench scale fermentation processes.
• Plate model development for cultivations in 96 well format.
• Scoping literature and introducing new technology to evaluate for strain screenings in small scale format.
Other functions
• Development of high throughput assays.
• Data and statistical analysis, reporting, and communicating results to a group of interdisciplinary and curious scientists.
• Prepare robust, accurate, and precise SOPs, and train personnel in those methods.
• Work in a team, being proactive in your work, seeking opportunities to build your understanding. 
• Maintain a high degree of accuracy and meticulous attention to detail in laboratory techniques and documentation.
• Mentoring of junior team members.
Competencies
• Fostering Teamwork
• Empowering Others
• Managing Change
• Developing Others
• Attention to Communication
• Building Collaborative Relationships
• Analytical and conceptual Thinking
• Technical Expertise
• Fostering Innovation
• Stress Management

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS REQUIRED:

• MSc with 5-7 years of relevant post graduate experience.
• Degree in life sciences, chemical bioengineering, or related field. 
• Proven experience in plate model development.
• Strong scientific background and ability to work independently.
• Familiarity with DoE.
• Experience working with filamentous fungi
• Hands-on experience with data analysis and statistical analysis for data-driven decisions.
• Candidate must possess a high level of technical aptitude, excellent communication, organization, and collaborative skills, and demonstrated ability to innovate, troubleshoot, and thrive in a dynamic cross-functional team environment.
• Ability to think and adapt to a rapidly changing environment.
• Maintain a high degree of accuracy and meticulous attention to detail.

ADDITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS DESIRED, BUT NOT REQUIRED:

• PhD with 2-3 years of relevant post graduate experience. 
• Knowledge about physiology of filamentous fungi.
• Experience with JMP, Python, R, or other programming language is desirable.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Ability to stand or sit for prolonged periods, climb, kneel, bend, and at times lift objects as heavy as 50 lbs.
• Position located in a mix of typical laboratory, workshop, and kitchen environments, and requires a tolerance for high worker traffic, close quarters, noise, odors, dust, transiently wet and dirty floors, and varying room temperatures and lighting.

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!