Fermentation Scientist

over 1 year ago
Full time role
San Francisco, CA, US... more
San Francisco, CA, US... more

Company

We are an early-stage food tech startup leveraging food science and  fermentation to recreate coffee without coffee beans. Our goal ...

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Job Description

About us

We are an early-stage food tech startup leveraging food science and  fermentation to recreate coffee without coffee beans. Our goal is to create better and more sustainable food products in order to create a positive impact on the future through transformative science.  We are backed by top investors like Lowercarbon Capital, Collaborative Fund, Humboldt Fund, SVLC, among others.

The Role

We are currently looking for a motivated and accomplished Fermentation Scientist to develop a key pillar of our platform technology.

You will be responsible for leading the Fermentation Team’s strategy for the scale-up of microbial cultures from bench to small-scale bioreactors. We are looking for a self-motivated individual that works well within a team, who can lead through influence, drive ideas forward, and communicate results effectively.

About You

To excel in this role, you must have excellent microbiology skills and fermentation scale-up expertise with experience in the domestication of environmental microbes. You have used next generation sequencing to follow the directed evolution of microbial communities. The ideal candidate has a consistent track record aligning research with product development. They will spearhead the creation of new workflows and capabilities, proposing and leading research projects, implementing engineering solutions, and collaborating cross-functionally. You have experience in and understanding of the need to increase the throughput of discovery through appropriate scaling and experimental design.

     

     Responsibilities

● Lead the directed evolution and characterization of microbial communities.

● Lead the scale up of microbial cultures from bench to small-scale bioreactors.

● Build Compound’s microbial culture collection.

● Develop assays to shorten the test-learn cycle.

● Work with the bioinformatics team to understand microbial community interactions and act on the findings.

● Collaborate with the product development group to guide strain development, fermentation work plans, and scale-up efforts.

● Create and oversee a data gathering and documentation system, perform data analysis of results and present internally to team members and senior management.

● Responsible for the company’s fermentation capabilities: procurement of equipment, build-out, equipment troubleshooting & repair.

● Conceptualize creative solutions to problems and create new ideas and workflows to execute projects on time.

  

Qualifications

Essential

● PhD in Fermentation Science, Microbiology, or related field or MS with 3 + years of industrial experience working directly with lab-scale and/or pilot-scale fermentations.

● Experience in the laboratory domestication of microbes from the “wild”.

● Experience in the use of next generation sequencing to understand microbiomes.

● Proficiency developing scalable processes.

● Experience implementing the design of experiment (DoE) methods for strain screening/characterization or bioprocess development.

● Demonstrated success working both individually and cross-disciplinary to balance multiple independent experiments/projects

 

Nice to have

● Knowledge on microbial community interactions.

● Experience in the fermented food or beverage industry.

● A background in starter cultures and their application in the development of fermentation systems focused on flavor development through biodegradation.

● Experience working at a start-up.


Position is onsite in San Francisco and reports to Head of Technology. If this opportunity inspires you, please reach out to info@compound-foods.com or apply via the hosting platform. 

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