About us

If you have multiple years experience in helping make microbes perform brilliantly in bioprocesses at a range of scales and are passionate about the environment, then read on.

There are fewer than 1,000 sun bears left in the wild, due largely to deforestation. Sun Bear Biofuture was born in 2022 to use modern science and technology to have a meaningful environmental impact. We are reimagining farming to produce everyday essentials more sustainably. We’re using synthetic biology and precision fermentation to produce sustainable, resilient alternatives to fats such as cocoa butter and palm oil. Why? Well, they’re responsible for over 800m tonnes of CO2e annually and have a huge impact on the planet.

Our focus is optimisation and scale-up as we grow our capacity and drive down the cost of production.

Some defining qualities for us are our values: Candid, Trusting, Nurturing, Impact-Driven and Brave. If a culture built on these values sounds like a good fit then we’d love to hear from you.

About you

You’ll ideally have a PhD or equivalent industry experience in a related field and several years of industry R&D within bioprocess engineering, targeting scale-up and process optimisation. If you’ve worked from 1L to 1,000L that would be ideal. The ability to balance time, quality and results is needed in our fast paced startup environment.

How you got to science and technology matters less to us than your passion, interest and understanding of it. We’re looking for someone who will explore and debate ideas, challenge assumptions, and feedback to others on their ideas.

The role

You will be working closely with our research scientists, business team and external collaborators as we optimise our lipid production fermentations and downstream processing. You will help define the strategies for optimisation of the performance of our production strains at benchtop-scale and transfer learnings to larger scales (300L+). You’ll be hands-on with the setup and refinement of our pilot-plant. Having set up facilities in the past will be a real advantage.

As well as extensive experience of running fermentations, you will have worked to really understand what is happening within the fermentations and designing experiments to help further the performance of microbes within them. DoE and thinking that provides results while minimising experimental work is a real skill and something we welcome.

You’ll be obsessed with improving key production metrics, such as yield, titre and productivity. You will research potential solutions to challenges, speak with experts in their field to find information and novel ideas, and be open to trying less-than-obvious solutions. You’ll work with the wider lab and business teams to ensure your work adds the greatest value possible and aligns with the objectives of the organisation.

We are a startup and that makes for a ‘dynamic’ environment. It’s fun, exhilarating and a place where you'll learn a lot quickly. If you’re unsure if it's the right work environment for you, apply and we can see together. We seek to be a truly inclusive and diverse company so if you do not fit all the criteria don’t worry - having a great cultural fit is as important as the skills and experience you have built up.

Responsibilities and tasks

Help with overall planning and lead on the bioprocess optimisation of our products, with a focus on fermentations

Set up and operate processes at benchtop (1-5L) and pilot-scale (300-1000L)

Manage and collaborate closely with internal and external colleagues on R&D projects

Carry out experiments and train others for the advancement of our research objectives

Analyse results and monitoring data in line with our IP strategy

Monitor our quality control and protocol development, championing best practices

Helping develop presentations and reports for external stakeholders and IP applications

Skills and experience

Strong understanding of metabolic performance of microbial processes, especially yeast

Extensive experience of designing, setting up and operating fermentations at a range of scales

Excellent ability to plan research, manage your own time, set goals and monitor them

Strong track record of lab record keeping and quality control

Great communication and problem-solving skills

Nice to haves:

3+ years industry experience in bioprocess development

Work experience within a startup

Downstream processing experience

Qualifications

Master’s or PhD with several years industry work experience

An educational or professional background in process development, molecular biology and/or fermentation

Location

Oxford, UK

What we offer

£37,000 to £45,000 dependent on experience - because you shouldn’t have to guess what your salary would be when job searching

£500 annual training budget - books, courses, training, spend it how you see fit in your own professional development

25 days holiday + bank holidays

Pension scheme

Subsidised gym membership

Option scheme available to own a part of the business you’re helping to build

Our process

Stage 1. Email your CV and Covering letter to info@sunbearbiofuture.com

Stage 2. First video interview

Stage 3. Second, ideally face to face, interview

Stage 4. 2 References - we won’t ask for this until after offering you a role

Sun Bear Biofuture

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