Process Development Engineer, Biocatalysis & Scale-Up

Cascade Bio; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

The ideal candidate has strong catalysis/biocatalysis expertise, industry experience, and the ability to balance scientific discovery with cost-per-kilogram considerations. You will collaborate across disciplines and help drive cross-functional programs in a fast-paced startup environment.

Qualifications

• PhD or MS in biochemistry, chemical engineering, organic chemistry, or related field with catalysis focus.
• Minimum of 4 years of experience in process development including scale up, continuous improvements and commercial catalyst development.
• Experience with techno-economic modeling and process analytical tools.
• Familiarity with DOE-driven development and comfort using data systematically to guide decisions.
• Experience working across disciplines, including protein engineering, analytical chemistry, and engineering, and translating between scientific and commercial priorities.

Responsibilities

• Own process development end-to-end, from initial catalyst hits to optimized ready to scale processes.
• Run and optimize enzymatic reactions, driving process intensification by improving space-time yield, reducing catalyst loading, extending catalyst lifetime, and lowering overall process costs.
• Collaborate with our enzyme immobilization team to evaluate and implement heterogeneous catalyst formats.
• Evaluate and implement new equipment and process analytical technology solutions.
• Lead and grow a small process development team over time, mentoring junior scientists while maintaining a technical culture and standards.
• Build and maintain techno-economic models tracking key process metrics: E-factor, PMI, catalyst cost contribution, and downstream processing implications.
• Interface with protein engineering efforts, translating process bottlenecks into enzyme engineering targets and back-integrating improved variants.
• Contribute broadly across the organization: at this stage of the company, the most impactful team members bring their expertise to problems beyond their core scope.
• Strong communication skills and ability to balance multiple priorities in a fast-paced, cross-functional and dynamic environment across a variety of programs.

Skills

Process development

Scale-up

Techno-economic modeling

Data-driven decisions

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Education

PhD or MS in biochemistry, chemical engineering, organic chemistry or related field

Tools

Process Analytical Technology (PAT)

DOE (Design of Experiments)

Job description

The ideal candidate has strong catalysis/biocatalysis expertise, industry experience, and the ability to balance scientific discovery with cost-per-kilogram considerations. You will collaborate across disciplines and help drive cross-functional programs in a fast-paced startup environment.