Senior Scientist, Strain Development

Illinois Ag; Decatur (IL); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) in Decatur, IL is seeking an experienced Scientist III to lead strain development efforts for a high-impact project within the BioSolutions division.

The role focuses on designing, building, and testing metabolically reprogrammed yeast strains using genome editing, phenotypic screening, and high-throughput platforms, with close collaboration across metabolic engineering, automation, genomics, and fermentation teams.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in molecular biology, biochemistry, biotechnology or related field (or MSc with 5+ years industry experience).
• Experience with yeast and/or microbial genetics, cell biology and physiology.
• Experience with 96-well plate cloning and/or biochemical assays.
• Ability to analyze genetic, molecular biology and biochemistry data.
• Familiarity with Python or R for data analysis.
• Knowledge of bio-based production and fermentation KPIs.
• Ability to generate, organize, analyze and interpret large datasets.
• Demonstrated success working within inter-disciplinary team.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Design and build yeast strains containing heterologous metabolic pathways and/or loss-of-function mutations.
• Deploy genome editing technologies to efficiently build new yeast strains.
• Design experiments, analyze and interpret data, and report findings on strain performance to link genotype to phenotype.
• Further optimize strain engineering methods to accelerate Design-Build-Test-Learn cycles.
• Analyze and interpret NGS genomic sequencing results (e.g., DNA-seq, RNA-seq).
• Collaborate with automation scientists to transfer manual bench-scale experiments to high-throughput robotic platforms.
• Maintain detailed notes in Benchling ELN/LIMS to enable data sharing and collaboration across project teams.
• Contribute to a team-oriented, positive and safe work environment.

Skills

Genome editing

Molecular biology

Biochemical assays

Bioinformatics

Python/R

Fermentation

Data analysis

Team collaboration

Communication skills

NGS data interpretation

Education

Ph.D. in molecular biology, biochemistry, biotechnology (or related field)

M.Sc. with 5+ years industry experience

Tools

Benchling ELN/LIMS

Job description

Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) in Decatur, IL is seeking an experienced Scientist III to lead strain development efforts for a high-impact project within the BioSolutions division.

The role focuses on designing, building, and testing metabolically reprogrammed yeast strains using genome editing, phenotypic screening, and high-throughput platforms, with close collaboration across metabolic engineering, automation, genomics, and fermentation teams.