Formulation Chemist / Technical Co-Founder, Crop Nutrition & Weed Control

Deep Science Ventures is seeking an exceptional formulation chemist to join the team of a new venture at the intersection of crop nutrition and weed control.

This is a deeply hands-on role: You will take ownership of a critical part of the technology, developing the formulation and coating system required to translate the underlying biology into a scalable, commercially viable agricultural product. You will design the formulation strategy and personally execute experimental work in the lab, taking the technology from early formulation development through to pilot scale.

Depending on your experience, leadership ambition and fit with the founding team, the role could develop as Technical Co-Founder (c-suite), with responsibility for the company's broader technical strategy, or as a founding Formulation Chemist/Lead Scientist working alongside the c-suite.

The venture is targeting incorporation and spin-out in early Q2 2027, with pre-seed (incorporation) investment and ongoing support from Deep Science Ventures and the Grantham Foundation. The role is full-time and will require an on-site presence in San Diego, California as the company's laboratory capability is established.

The Venture

A combination of legislation and weed resistance is giving farmers an ever-diminishing herbicide tool kit.  Legacy chemical herbicides have been shown to be toxic to human health and the environment.  Meanwhile, farmers are spending thousands of dollars per year on inefficient crop nutrition with at best 50% of what is administered benefiting the crop.  The remainder is polluting our water systems or feeding weeds that compete with the crop for nutrients.  Thus weeds are costing farmers twice - on wasted nutrients and on herbicides.  We are building a solution to address this paradox, with a technology that delivers nutrients exclusively to crops. It is designed for compatibility with existing farming practices, thereby enabling large scale impact via both increased nutrient use efficiency for yield and weed starvation to lower herbicide demands.  

You’ll build the company alongside Dr. James Pearce, an experienced ag-biotech R&D leader with 20+ years spanning startups and global crop-science companies. He has held senior roles including CSO at Boost Biomes and VP Research at CH4 Global, alongside earlier leadership roles at Monsanto/Bayer, Cibus and Syngenta. His experience spans microbial crop inputs, biologicals, field trials, bioprocess scale-up, regulatory and IP strategy, and strategic partnerships.

You’re motivated by ambitious, unsolved challenges and the opportunity to challenge the status quo in agrochemicals. You’re entrepreneurial, impact-driven and comfortable taking initiative in ambiguous, fast-moving environments, using first-principles thinking to figure out what’s really needed. You collaborate with patience and an open mind, and are willing to go where the company needs you most as the venture evolves.

Technical Experience:

• PhD or equivalent technical depth in Chemistry, Materials Science, Polymer Science, Biochemistry or a related discipline;
• Significant industry R&D experience developing formulations or coatings from bench towards pilot scale;
• Deep expertise in controlled-release formulation/coating systems, ideally involving fertilisers, agricultural inputs or another relevant controlled-release application;
• Hands-on experience with fluid-bed coating or closely analogous coating processes;
• Strong understanding of film properties, coating integrity and dissolution/release kinetics;
• Experience working with biopolymers or polymer modification and characterisation; experience with esterification, degree-of-substitution control, NMR and titration is particularly relevant;
• Experience applying formal Design of Experiments (DoE) to multi-parameter formulation or coating optimisation, using tools such as JMP, Design-Expert, Minitab or R;
• Experience considering scale-up, manufacturability and cost-of-goods alongside technical performance;
• Experience with enzyme-substrate interactions and kinetics, microbial formulations, fertiliser coatings or other biological/chemical interfaces would be particularly valuable.

Track record:

For candidates interested in taking on the broader Technical Co-Founder (c-suite) role, we're additionally looking for experience in/the ability to:

• Set technical strategy and prioritise the experiments that most rapidly de-risk the company;
• Build and lead multidisciplinary R&D teams;
• Make pragmatic decisions about technical risk, resources and capital allocation;
• Own technical elements of fundraising, partnerships and investor diligence;
• Develop and protect the company's IP position;
• Communicate complex science clearly to investors, commercial partners and other non-specialists;
• Operate with the ownership, adaptability and resilience required of a founder.

Responsibilities

You will own formulation development and help translate the technology from the bench towards a scalable agricultural product. Depending on expertise, you will:

• Define the fertiliser formulation and coating strategy and personally execute experimental work at the bench;
• Design and iterate coating systems based on release kinetics, biological performance, manufacturability and cost of goods;
• Take formulations from bench towards pilot scale, identifying the critical technical and scale-up risks along the way;
• Define product specifications that are technically robust and commercially viable;
• Design rigorous experiments and use DoE/data-driven approaches to optimise multi-parameter formulation systems;
• Establish the chemistry capability within a shared laboratory, including selecting equipment, reagents and experimental infrastructure;
• Identify patentable inventions and contribute to the development of the company's IP strategy;
• Represent the technology credibly with external technical partners, investors and the wider Ag Biotech community;
• As the team grows, help recruit, mentor and lead additional technical talent.

The setup

The venture spins out with £250k in inception capital from DSV and the Grantham Foundation. The founding team will collectively hold a majority equity stake in the company, and salary is negotiated as part of the spin-out. Post-launch, DSV provides continuous portfolio support - fundraising, partnerships, recruitment.

The role is full-time and will require an on-site presence in San Diego, California as the laboratory is established. Candidates must be authorised to work full-time in the US.

For an exceptional candidate with the breadth and ambition to join as a Technical Co-Founder, founder-level equity and leadership responsibility will reflect that role.

About DSV

Deep Science Ventures (DSV) is on a mission to create a future in which both humans and the planet can thrive. We use our unique venture creation process to create, spin-out, and invest in science companies, combining available scientific knowledge and founder-type scientists into high-impact ventures. Operating in four sectors—Pharmaceuticals, Climate, Agriculture, and Computation—we tackle the challenges defining these areas by taking a first principles approach and partnering with leading institutions.

About Grantham

The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment was established in 1997 by Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham. Jeremy is co-founder and Chairman of investment management firm GMO, LLC. Jeremy was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015, was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2016, and received with Hannelore the Carnegie Medal for Philanthropy in 2017, all for leadership in climate change activities.