Plant Metabolic Engineering Scientist — High-Impact Bioproduction

CHEManager International; Oxford; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary dependent on experience

Travel allowance

Bonus

Enhanced holiday: 25 days + 8 bank hol

Pension - Employer contribution 7.5%

Life Assurance

Income Protection

Private Medical Insurance for you and/

Employee discounts

Electric car scheme

Nursery Salary Sacrifice

Cycle to Work

Family Planning

Neurodiversity support

Coaching & Therapy

Job summary

The Ellison Institute Of Technology (EIT) Oxford invites applications for a Scientist in the Cell Based Production programme. You will contribute to novel decarbonised plant-based production of food and/or medicines, taking projects from discovery through to scalable application, and collaborating with AI and robotics teams.

We seek a candidate with a PhD in Biochemistry, Plant Biology or related field, plus expertise in plant specialised metabolism, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology.

Qualifications

• PhD in Biochemistry, Plant Biology, Biotechnology or related discipline.
• Strong background in plant specialised metabolism.
• Experience in specialised metabolite analytics.
• Experience in plant metabolic engineering and synthetic biology.
• Proficiency in applying advanced plant biotechnology approaches to interrogate and reprogram metabolic networks.
• Expertise in utilising plant cell culture systems for metabolic studies.
• Working knowledge of targeted metabolomics and mass spectrometry.
• Experience with laboratory automation and robotics.
• Experience with cross-disciplinary collaboration, especially with computational modellers.
• Demonstration of commercial awareness and versatility of research that could serve various applications.

Responsibilities

• Design and conduct research focused on understanding and engineering plant specialised metabolism in plant cell cultures to produce high-value plant natural products with applications in health and medicine.
• Develop and apply novel engineering and synthetic biology strategies to optimise biosynthetic pathway flux and product tolerance.
• Collaborate with EIT Oxford AI and Robotics teams to establish model-driven engineering and rapid iteration of engineering cycles.
• Drive rigorous experimental design, execution, and data interpretations, ensuring robust and reproducible scientific outcomes.
• Deliver research progress through stage gated milestones.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to incorporate cutting edge research techniques into experiments.
• Present scientific work at seminars within EIT and at external meetings, including IP discussions.
• Recognise and act on opportunities for IP generation and patent protection.
• Conduct research ethically, in compliance with EIT policy and best scientific practice.

Skills

Plant specialised metabolism

Metabolite analytics

Synthetic biology

Plant metabolic engineering

Biotechnology approaches

Education

PhD in Biochemistry, Plant Biology, Biotechnology or related discipline

Tools

Mass spectrometry

Laboratory automation

Computational modelling

Job description

The Ellison Institute Of Technology (EIT) Oxford invites applications for a Scientist in the Cell Based Production programme. You will contribute to novel decarbonised plant-based production of food and/or medicines, taking projects from discovery through to scalable application, and collaborating with AI and robotics teams.

We seek a candidate with a PhD in Biochemistry, Plant Biology or related field, plus expertise in plant specialised metabolism, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology.