Senior Strain Engineer

Company:

Colorifix is a biotechnology company that aims to bring a novel, sustainable and environmentally friendly process to the textile dyeing industry by eliminating the use of hazardous chemicals as well as allowing for large savings in water and energy use. Colorifix has been recognised by winning awards in both synthetic biology and fashion, with full information available on our website.

We promote and adhere to our company values of Trust, Sustainability, Respect, Inclusivity and Social Conscience.

Role description:

We seek to hire a highly motivated and experienced Senior Strain Engineer to join the Microbial Engineering Division at Colorifix. The successful candidate will be a pivotal member of the team, supporting the development of colour pathways in microbial platform chassis, in addition to developing genetic tools and workflows for microbe engineering.

If you are motivated by creating meaningful positive impact, enjoy working on technically challenging projects and thrive in a dynamic, creative and collaborative team-based environment, come join us!

Key duties and responsibilities:

• Design and optimise new metabolic pathways for heterologous biosynthesis of target pigment molecules in microbial chassis

• Develop, conduct and optimise phenotypical and biochemical assays to assess production yields, growth rates, and other relevant parameters in production strains

• Design and implement metabolic engineering strategies to enhance strain production and growth performance in fermentation at scale

• Compile and analyse large datasets of diverse nature (OD, HPLC, LC-MS/MS…) to inform further strain engineering strategies

• Develop and optimise high-throughput workflows for DNA assembly, strain engineering and screening

• Work with scientists of other Divisions to integrate strain engineering efforts into product development workflows

• Report experimental results and present at internal meetings and to external collaborators

Essential Skills and Experience:

• PhD or relevant work experience (3+ years) in Synthetic Biology, Biotechnology or related discipline

• Experience with a variety of molecular biology and microbiology techniques applicable to genetic engineering workflows

• Extensive knowledge of yeast and bacterial metabolism (model chassis)

• Capable of independent problem-solving

• Strong communicator and flexible team player who is committed to the team success as a whole

• Good organisational skills with a high attention to detail

• Maintaining timelines and deliverables

• Respect for confidentiality and integrity

• Curious and can-do attitude

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Experience with planning, conducting and analysing experiments to generate omics data

• Use of statistical methods and specialised bioinformatics tools, especially for the study of metabolic pathways, to guide improvement cycles of metabolic pathway expression in microbial platforms

• Experience using statistics and design-of-experiments based approaches

• Familiarity with lab automation (Tecan, Hamilton or similar)

• General awareness of industrial bioprocessing development

• Experience with technical training and mentoring junior colleagues

Title:              Senior Strain Engineer (Yeasts)

Reports to: Head of Microbial Engineering

Location:     Norwich Research Park, Norwich

Salary:        £45,000-£50,000pa

Holidays:    25 + BH

Benefits:     Pension Scheme, Life Insurance, EMI Share Options, Health Cash Plan, Cycle to Work & Electric Car Scheme, EAP and Wellbeing Budget, Additional Birthday Leave, and Company Social Events.

Local Amenities: On-site Cafes, On-site Nursery, Parking, Gym

Deadline: The deadline for submission is 23^rd
May 2025.

Colorifix is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.