Senior Bioprocess Engineer (Contract)
This is for a 6-Month contract role (potential for FTE conversion)
About Atlantic Fish Co
Atlantic Fish Co is using biotechnology to build the future of seafood production. We are a cultivated protein company focused on premium seafood, starting with marine white fish. We have developed a proprietary technology platform to grow muscle cells in suspension culture and have applied it to black sea bass, producing both cell lines and prototype seafood products.
Backed by recent seed funding and non-dilutive grants from the Good Food Institute, NSF, and USDA, Atlantic Fish Co is at a pivotal moment: transitioning our platform into a robust production process to support product development efforts and customer demonstrations. The bioprocess engineer in this position will play a central role in defining how Atlantic Fish Co moves from bench-scale to pilot and beyond.
About the Role
This is a unique opportunity to own an entire engineering project from conception to execution. We have developed a technology platform and optimized our cell lines - now we need someone to turn this R&D into a working bench-scale production process. This will be a high-impact, critical role which will guide the first transition of our R&D efforts into production. In the short-term, we need to produce enough cultivated fish muscle to support product development and customer demonstrations. In the long-term, we need to gather data and lay the groundwork for future scale-up efforts. We are not tied to any specific production methodology and have the flexibility to support broad, widespread process experimentation. This is a 6-month contract position with the potential to convert to a full-time role depending on performance and fundraising.
This role will be full-time, on-site at our laboratory in Raleigh, NC.
Responsibilities
- Transition suspension cell cultures from shake flasks and spinner flasks to a benchtop bioreactor
- Optimize cell growth rate to hit our production targets
- Explore different process modalities to determine which best suits our cells and production goals
- Interface with our cell line engineering and media development teams to co-develop the process alongside the cells and media
- Build a first-principles TEA demonstrating a credible path to scale that identifies key cost drivers, sensitivities, and scale up assumptions.
- Evaluate and make recommendations on developing an internal pilot facility, or working with a contract manufacturing organization (CMO)
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree (or higher) in Chemical Engineering, Biological Engineering, or related field and 5+ years of experience in an industry setting
- Experience with eukaryotic cells - novel cell types (i.e., beyond CHO or HEK) is a major advantage
- Early-stage process development experience
- Experience with benchtop bioreactors (250 mL - 1L)
- Skilled in using data analysis/statistics for designing experiments to optimize process variables across a wide range of conditions and analyze experimental results
- Experience producing or supporting techno-economic analyses
- Willingness to wear many hats (we are a small startup)
- Some cell biology knowledge/experience would be a plus
- Must be local to Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill and able to start immediately
Compensation
- Monthly retainer at a competitive rate based on experience/qualifications
- Potential to transition to a full-time role with a generous equity and benefits package
- We can (almost) guarantee you will have fun working with us and we can definitely guarantee you will learn something new