Senior Scientist - Metabolic Engineering

The MicroByre team makes pets out of bacteria. The vast majority of prokaryotes on the planet are not currently considered cultivable, let alone genetically modifiable. MicroByre domesticates and then genetically engineers otherwise reluctant, recalcitrant, and rebellious bacteria. We get them to eat out of our hands.

With friends like these, who needs petroleum? Newly cooperative bacteria will help us replace ancient biomass (petrochemicals) with renewable biomass (lawn clippings) efficiently and economically.

This is not the synthetic biology you’ve read about. We do not design genetic circuits in yeast or E. coli. We engineer naturally cool but standoffish bacteria to be cooperative, and thus even cooler.

As a Team Member

You are a bacterial scout. Using your finely honed skills, you identify the best talent for the task. You evaluate strengths and weaknesses to determine if potential recruits have the skills necessary to become a high-performing player. No one is as good at evaluating the potential of a new microbe as you.

This is a hybrid or remote role.

Responsibilities:

• Work with the business development team to quickly identify prospects with strong metabolic potential and technical merit
• Support bench scientists in generating hypotheses from genomic and phenotypic data to guide pathway and metabolic engineering strategies
• Collaborate with data scientists and software engineers to create accessible tools to probe bacterial metabolism
• No more bench work!

Required qualifications:

• PhD in molecular biology, microbiology, biochemistry, chemistry, systems biology, chemical engineering or a related field or M.S. or B.S. with equivalent industry experience
• Five years of postdoctoral or industry experience
• Strong domain knowledge of bacterial metabolism
• Exquisite attention to detail
• Strong organizational skills paired with operational flexibility
• Clear communication, both written and oral, and strong interpersonal skills
• Good general computer skills
• Ability to train, correct, and learn from peers
• A willingness to learn programming skills

Also helpful:

• Experience with retrosynthesis analysis
• Any experience whatsoever with programming in any language

The salary range for this position is $120,000-$160,000 + equity

As an Employer

MicroByre is a biotech startup in the Berkeley/Oakland Bay Area. We recently closed a round of funding and are growing fast!

We offer competitive benefits:

• Three weeks paid vacation each year
• Every federal holiday is a paid holiday
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Life insurance and disability coverage
• 401(k) program with 3% employer match

We offer a professional and intellectually stimulating work environment with plenty of opportunities to train up.

We take a lesson from the diversity evident from the study of ecology: it takes a lot of different kinds of skills working together with mutual respect to make a dent in the world. We are committed to maintaining a work environment free of harassment and discrimination. All recruitment, salary, & promotion decisions are based on business need, qualification, and job requirements with no regard to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, family or parental status, veteran or disability status, religion or belief, or age. MicroByre is not sponsoring work visas or reimbursing relocation expenses for this position.