Research Associate - Plant Physiology

Living Carbon is a public benefit corporation with a mission to responsibly rebalance the planet’s carbon cycle using the inherent power of plants. We believe that gigaton scale CO2 drawdown will only happen if solutions are both beneficial to the environment and profitable to landowners. We’ve developed photosynthesis-enhanced seedlings that capture carbon faster on underperforming and degraded land. In addition to improving carbon capture rates we are also working on extending the durability of nature based sequestration. We’re backed by some of the most prominent investors in Silicon Valley including Felicis Ventures, YCombinator, and Chris Sacca of LowerCarbon Capital.

If you believe that climate change is the defining global emergency of the century and want to join an ambitious project that’s working on a biological solution, we’d love to hear from you.

Your role:

We’re looking for someone who’s excited to be part of a mission-driven early stage company. As Research Associate, you will play an essential role executing plant physiology and metabolomics experiments to help meet the company goal. This role requires laboratory experience with plant growth and development, biochemical assays, and metabolomics (e.g. HPLC, LC-MS/MS) with strong working knowledge of plant physiology and photosynthesis. Experience with portable photosynthesis systems is desirable. The successful candidate will be both a strong lab-based individual contributor and a team player who works well with other scientists. The candidate will contribute to key discovery studies which will have a direct impact on the success of our biotech programs to advance company goals.

Your responsibilities:

• Perform experiments to carry out plant physiology and photosynthesis analysis in controlled environments
• Help to conduct plant growth measurements on weekly basis and help with biomass data collection at the end of the growth cycle
• Collect and prepare plant tissue samples for metabolomic analysis 
• Work with supervisor to measure plant metabolites using LC-MS/MS 
• Perform photosynthesis measurements on greenhouse/growth room grown plants using leaf gas exchange equipment including LICOR-6800 and LICOR-600
• Perform biochemical assays to evaluate the physiological impact of engineered traits
• Accurately document experimental protocols, perform analysis and help with interpretation of data, and timely reporting of key findings to supervisor and research team

Requirements and qualifications:

• BS in plant biology or biochemistry related fields 
• Two or more years of laboratory experience in industry or academia
• Technical proficiency in general laboratory practices, including chemical reagent preparation, pH measurement, metabolite extraction techniques, safety practices, etc.
• Experience in laboratory assays with samples collected from plants
• Experience with metabolomics, e.g. HPLC, LC-MS/MS is highly desirable
• Experience with photosynthesis gas exchange analysis, e.g. LICOR-6800 is desirable
• Strong organizational and documentation skills
• Experience with database management
• Ability to manage several projects simultaneously
• Effective communication (written/verbal) and ability to work independently and collaboratively as part of a team are critical
• Self-starter who can operate with minimal supervision

Living Carbon PBC offers competitive compensation, and generous healthcare, dental and vision insurance.

Living Carbon PBC is an equal opportunity employer.

We believe the best solutions to climate change are created by diverse teams. Living Carbon is focused on building a multicultural and inclusive team with strong representation from the many diverse communities disproportionately impacted by climate change. As a public benefit corporation, ensuring solutions to slow climate change are widely distributed to all peoples is critical to the success of our mission.