Plant Metabolomics Scientist - Small Molecule Expert

1000scholars; Oxford; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Travel allowance

Private Medical Insurance

Pension scheme

Life Assurance

Cycle to Work

Neurodiversity support

Job summary

The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) Oxford seeks a Scientist to join the Cell Based Production programme, driving plant specialised metabolism engineering from discovery to scalable production of novel plant-based foods or medicines. You will apply state-of-the-art analytics and mass spectrometry to characterise natural products and support IP generation.

You will collaborate across multidisciplinary teams, design rigorous experiments, and help translate research into real-world commercial

Qualifications

• PhD in organic chemistry, natural product biochemistry, plant molecular biology or related discipline.
• Extraction, purification and de novo structural elucidation of natural products.
• Experience in small molecule synthesis and characterization.
• Demonstrated experience in collaboration with cross-disciplinary teams.

Responsibilities

• Support metabolic engineering of plant natural products with applications in health and medicine in a highly collaborative environment.
• Design and conduct research focused on class-targeted metabolomics of plant specialised metabolism in complex mixtures from non-model sources.
• Develop customized libraries based on chromatographic and mass spectrometry-based features.
• Fundamental understanding of carbon flux analysis to support computationally assisted model building and prediction of regulatory and metabolic bottlenecks steps.
• Collaborate with EIT Oxford AI and Robotics teams to establish high throughput, targeted analytical procedures.
• 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 contributing to discussions on developments within the field, in compliance with company disclosure procedures.
• Recognise and act on opportunities for the creation of IP and cooperating in patent protection and in impact delivery.
• Conduct research ethically, in compliance with EIT policy, regulatory guidance, and best scientific practice.

Skills

Extraction & purification

Mass spectrometry analysis

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Education

PhD in organic chemistry / natural product biochemistry / plant molecular biology

Tools

GC/LC-MS

NMR

De novo structure elucidation

Job description

The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) Oxford seeks a Scientist to join the Cell Based Production programme, driving plant specialised metabolism engineering from discovery to scalable production of novel plant-based foods or medicines. You will apply state-of-the-art analytics and mass spectrometry to characterise natural products and support IP generation.

You will collaborate across multidisciplinary teams, design rigorous experiments, and help translate research into real-world commercial