Senior Upstream Process Scientist: Fermentation & Cell Culture

GlycoEra AG; Wädenswil; On-site; CHF 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

GlycoEra AG in Switzerland seeks a Senior Scientist, Upstream Process Development, to lead hands-on fermentation and cell-culture efforts, advancing our novel expression technology. You will design, optimize, and scale early-stage processes with a focus on robustness and transferability.

The ideal candidate holds a PhD and has 5+ years’ experience in fermentation or cell-culture development, with proven ability to troubleshoot bottlenecks and collaborate across process development, analytical

Qualifications

• PhD in Biotechnology, Biochemical Engineering, Microbiology or a related field.
• 5+ years of relevant fermentation or cell-culture process development experience, with at least 3 years in industry.
• Strong hands-on expertise with bioreactors, fermentation control systems, and scale-up principles.
• Experience with contamination-control strategies, operational risk assessment, and process monitoring.
• Broad hands-on experience with mammalian cell culture platforms (fed-batch and/or perfusion) and microbial expression systems is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute upstream process-development studies with minimal supervision.
• Translate literature insights into hypothesis-driven experiments and process improvements.
• Identify and optimize critical process parameters affecting upstream performance.
• Apply analytical tools to improve understanding of organism physiology and fermentation performance.
• Run bioreactors regularly as part of the development workflow and support routine production when needed.
• Document, analyze, and present experimental data clearly.
• Follow SOPs and guidelines to maintain culture integrity, prevent contamination, and ensure compliance.
• Collaborate with process development, analytical development, and protein sciences teams.
• Contribute to project planning, timelines, and risk assessments.

Skills

Bioreactor operation

Fermentation control

Scale-up engineering

Process monitoring

Data analysis

Troubleshooting

Laboratory hands-on

Education

PhD in Biotechnology/ Biochemical Engineering/ Microbiology or related field

Job description

GlycoEra AG in Switzerland seeks a Senior Scientist, Upstream Process Development, to lead hands-on fermentation and cell-culture efforts, advancing our novel expression technology. You will design, optimize, and scale early-stage processes with a focus on robustness and transferability.

The ideal candidate holds a PhD and has 5+ years’ experience in fermentation or cell-culture development, with proven ability to troubleshoot bottlenecks and collaborate across process development, analytical