Materials Scientist (Formulation Development)

Taxa; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 126,000 - 154,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Equity package

401(k) with 6% employer match

Job summary

Taxa is seeking a hands-on Materials Scientist to lead end-to-end formulation development for a room-temperature-stable solid/semisolid product containing live bacterial actives. You will design experiments, establish processing methods, and measure performance, collaborating with microbiology and manufacturing to ensure stability, manufacturability, and cost targets.

You will own the experimental direction with independence in a lean team, contributing to scale-up and technology transfer while

Qualifications

• Advanced technical training in a related field (PhD or MS/M.Eng with 3+ years hands-on experience).
• Solid-state formulation expertise with multicomponent systems and gelation.
• Quantitative assays to characterize material properties and stability testing.
• Hands-on prototyping and bench-scale experimentation with lab equipment.
• Rigorous lab documentation and reproducible SOPs.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end formulation development for room-temperature-stable live bacterial actives.
• Design and execute experiments, establish processing methods, and evaluate performance.
• Collaborate with microbiology for actives’ sensitivity and with manufacturing for tech transfer and cost.

Skills

Hands-on formulation

Process development

Prototyping

Quantitative characterization

Lab documentation

Independent work style

Education

PhD

MS/M.Eng with 3+ years in formulation/R&D

Tools

Rheometer

Texture analyzer

DSC

Water activity meter

Moisture sorption testing

Job description

Materials Scientist (Formulation Development)

The Opportunity (Full-time, Bay Area)

We're seeking a hands-on materials scientist to lead formulation development for a room-temperature-stable solid/semisolid product containing live bacterial actives. The core technical challenge: engineering a cold-formed solid-state formulation that keeps live cultures viable and stable through manufacturing, shipping, and shelf life.

You will own the experimental work end-to-end: designing and executing experiments to develop formulations, establishing processing methods, and rigorously measuring performance. You will collaborate closely with our microbiology team to understand our actives’ sensitivity to temperature, humidity, and excipients. You will also work closely with manufacturing operations to develop process and formulation specifications and guide technology transfer, ensuring formulations meet requirements for stability, manufacturability, raw-material availability, and cost.

You'll operate as an independent scientist within a lean, highly skilled team, with real ownership over your experimental direction and results.

Required Qualifications

• Advanced technical training — PhD, or MS/M.Eng with 3+ years of hands-on formulation/process R&D, in materials science, chemistry, chemical engineering, bioengineering, polymer science, or a related field.
• Solid-state formulation expertise — hands-on experience formulating body-safe solids, semisolids, or complex multicomponent systems (gels, waxes, structured solids), and cross-linking systems (e.g., ionic, covalent, or physical/associative gelation).
• Quantitative characterization — experience designing assays to characterize material properties, iteratively optimize composition against material behavior, and troubleshoot failures (sweating/syneresis, melting/softening, clumping, cracking), including rheometry, texture analysis, DSC, water activity and moisture sorption, and accelerated shelf-life/thermal-cycling testing.
• Hands-on prototyping and equipment ownership — experience and eagerness to design and execute bench-scale experiments, from sourcing and setting up unfamiliar lab and processing equipment to running and troubleshooting autonomously.
• Rigorous lab documentation — track experimental data, formulation SOPs, and sample materials with precision and reproducible documentation..
• Full on-site availability — based in or willing to relocate to the Bay Area.
• Authorized to work in the U.S. — visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

Highly Desirable Experience

• Stabilization science for labile biologicals — experience with eutectics/eutectogels, vitrification/glassy-state material, or anhydrous systems, and an understanding of water activity, moisture control, and temporal (shelf-life) stability.
• Microbiology stability — direct experience stabilizing live bacteria or other labile biologicals in room-temperature formulations, including maintaining CFU viability through processing, drying, and storage, and characterizing desiccation tolerance, thermal cycling response, and rehydration kinetics.
• Process development and pilot production — experience translating lab-scale formulations into reproducible batches at scale, and prior research on how mixing, shear, cooling/forming rates, and other unit operations affect crystallization behavior, phase separation, and CFU survival at scale-up.
• Encapsulation or powder processing — experience with microencapsulation, spray-drying, lyophilization, or granulation for live biologicals.
• Equipment sourcing and lab setup — vendor evaluation and hands-on operation of both processing equipment (controlled-rate mixers, extruders, molding/forming lines) and bench analytical instruments such as a rheometers, texture analyzers, DSC, water activity meters, and environmental/stability chambers.

Transparent Compensation

• Base salary — $140,000 annual.
• Equity — meaningful equity package as a core component of total compensation.
• Benefits — comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance.
• Retirement — 401(k) plan with 6% employer match.