Downstream Process Engineer — Bioprocess Scale-Up

Corteva Agriscience; Indianapolis (IN); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Four weeks PTO

Parental leave

Retirement savings plan

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

Corteva Agriscience is seeking a Downstream Process Engineer to lead development and scale-up of downstream processes for fermentation-derived materials in Indianapolis. You will partner with fermentation, analytical, formulation, and scale-up teams to improve recovery, purity, yield, and transfer readiness, while mentoring associate scientists and delivering sound technical recommendations.

The role emphasizes independent work, data-driven decision making, and advancing projects from lab

Qualifications

• PhD in Chemical Engineering, Biochemical Engineering, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Industrial Microbiology, or related field; or MS with relevant industry experience.
• 3+ years of experience supporting scale-up, technology transfer, or manufacturing of fermentation-based products.
• Experience developing downstream processes for fermentation-derived or biological products.
• Knowledge of downstream unit operations including filtration, centrifugation, extraction, adsorption, chromatography, concentration, purification, and stabilization.
• Strong experimental design, data analysis, and technical communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and collaborate across multidisciplinary teams.
• Commitment to laboratory safety, documentation quality, and data integrity.
• Demonstrated success improving process performance, quality, scalability, or operational efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Design and execute downstream process development studies for fermentation-derived materials.
• Develop scalable recovery and purification strategies based on broth characteristics and impurity profiles.
• Optimize downstream processes to improve yield, quality, throughput, reliability, and cost.
• Integrate fermentation performance, analytical results, and process data to guide decisions.
• Apply experimental design and statistical analysis to solve technical challenges.
• Troubleshoot recovery, purification, stability, and scale-up issues.
• Lead downstream workstreams within cross-functional programs.
• Support technology transfer and scale-up through documentation and risk assessments.
• Evaluate and implement new downstream technologies to improve understanding and efficiency.
• Prepare technical reports, presentations, and recommendations for teams and stakeholders.
• Promote safe laboratory operations and continuous improvement practices.

Skills

Independent work

Cross-functional collaboration

Experimental design

Statistical analysis

Technical communication

Education

PhD in Chemical Engineering / Biochemical Engineering / Biotechnology / Chemistry / Industrial Microbiology (or MS + relevant experience)

Tools

DoE software

Process modeling

Data visualization / AI tools

Job description

Corteva Agriscience is seeking a Downstream Process Engineer to lead development and scale-up of downstream processes for fermentation-derived materials in Indianapolis. You will partner with fermentation, analytical, formulation, and scale-up teams to improve recovery, purity, yield, and transfer readiness, while mentoring associate scientists and delivering sound technical recommendations.

The role emphasizes independent work, data-driven decision making, and advancing projects from lab