Senior Scientist, Synthetic Biology

Eat Just is a food technology company with a mission to build a healthier, safer, and more sustainable food system in our lifetimes. The company's expertise, from functionalizing plant proteins to culturing animal cells, is powered by a world-class team of scientists and chefs spanning more than a dozen research disciplines. Eat Just created America's fastest-growing egg brand, which is made entirely of plants, and the world's first-to-market meat made from animal cells instead of slaughtered livestock. The company has been recognized as one of Fast Company's "Most Innovative Companies," Entrepreneur's "100 Brilliant Companies," CNBC's "Disruptor 50" and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. JUST Egg has been named among Popular Science's "100 Greatest Innovations" and Fast Company's "World Changing Ideas" and the history-making debut of GOOD Meat was heralded as one of 2020's top scientific breakthroughs by The Guardian, Vox, and WIRED.

For more information on JUST Egg, visit https://ju.st.

For more information on GOOD Meat, visit http://goodmeat.co.

About the Role

As a Senior Synthetic Biology Scientist in our Cell Line Development Team, you will have the unique opportunity to contribute to the work of GOOD Meat - the first-to-market cell-cultured meat product. In this role, you will leverage your synthetic biology and metabolic engineering tools to identify opportunities for improving avian and mammalian cell line development and play a critical part in creating cost-effective, safe, and commercial-ready cell lines and processes for manufacturing cultured meat. You will work in close collaboration with our talented experts in cell biology, molecular biology, tissue engineering, bioprocess, food sciences, and product development.

Ideal candidates will have a Ph.D. degree in Chemical/Biochemical Engineering, Biochemistry, Bioinformatics or equivalent, with at least 3 years (5 preferred) of post-doc or post-internship relevant industrial experience in generating and analyzing large biological datasets for cell line development and improvement of process efficiency. Lastly, you should be excited by our mission and playing an essential part in producing sustainable and cost-effective cultivated meat products and changing the future of food.

What you'll do

• Design, set-up, execute, and document metabolic engineering and other cell line development experiments;
• Construct, test, and optimize biosynthetic pathways using various metabolic engineering and synthetic biology tools;
• Identify genes and proteins of interest with potential to improve cell line and process development performance, yields, and other quality traits to achieve R&D metrics;
• Growth, maintain and screen sterile avian and mammalian cell cultures, while always following good cell-culture practices, with proper aseptic technique;
• Work with genome editing and process development team members to define appropriate experiments, implement protocols, collect and analyze resultant data within agreed timelines;
• Provide technical and scientific leadership, including hands-on execution of experiments and training of other team members;
• Produce technical writing and summary reports; effectively communicate findings in a timely manner; participate in technical discussions within the group;
• Maintain notebook records, standard operating procedures, and other relevant documentation;
• Author, review, and support continuous improvement of Standard Operating Procedures and Batch Records;
• Prepare safety documentation for regulatory submissions;
• Effectively communicate project goals, status, and achievements with internal and external teams;
• Be a flexible team player - respond to direction and feedback and continuously seek to learn and improve.

What you'll bring

• Ph.D. or equivalent experience in Chemical/Biochemical Engineering, Bioengineering, Biochemistry, Bioprocess Engineering, Bioinformatics, Microbiology, Synthetic Biology, Genetics, Molecular Biology, or related fields/disciplines, 5 years of post-doctoral degree or post-internship experience preferred with a minimum of 3 years of post-doctoral degree or post-internship experience in synthetic biology or metabolic engineering in an industrial set-up.
• Hands-on experience with
• analyzing and generating insights from multiple biological data types (e.g., genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics);
• genome engineering using modern gene-editing technologies;
• cell characterization techniques such as PCR and flow cytometry preferred;
• Familiarity with database technologies, data storage, and retrieval, specific knowledge of biological data management (functional annotations, gene ontology, etc.), preferred;
• Experience with next-generation sequencing of a variety of DNA/RNA samples;
• Experience with cell biology, pathway design and synthesis, gene synthesis, metabolic engineering, and protein engineering;
• Direct relevant experience in high dimensionality biological data management, processing, analysis, and communication.
• Experience with one or more programming languages (e.g., Python, Matlab, Java, etc), preferred;
• Familiarity with statistical packages to prepare data and discover patterns within multi-dimensional biological data;
• Ability to build an in-house systems biology database by combining data from publicly available data sources, internally generated datasets, and other literature references to extract actionable insights for new hypothesis and experiment designs;
• You have an analytical mindset with excellent attention to detail - strong expertise in data analysis, computational skills, and statistics;
• You're self-motivated with excellent organization and time-management skills;
• Excellent communication skills both written and verbal - this is key to being able to effectively communicate and report on findings as well as working in our collaborative and dynamic environment;
• Experience managing and leading projects including directly or indirectly supervising people;
• Finally, you're mission-driven, self-directed, and enthusiastic about playing a part in changing the future of food.
• This role requires the ability to work the occasional weekend as needed.

Additional Information & Requirements

This is a full-time regular position based out of our Headquarters in San Francisco, CA until we move to our new Alameda Office (targeted February 2022).

Scheduled work will primarily be during regular business hours, though occasional weekend scheduling/support may be required.

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire.

Eat Just, Inc. and its subsidiaries participate in E-Verify and will provide the Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), with information from each new employee's Form I-9 to confirm work authorization.