Senior Upstream R&D Lead: Fermentation & Cell Culture

FUJIFILM Biosciences; Warminster Township (Bucks County); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision

Life Insurance

401k

Paid Time Off

Job summary

FUJIFILM Biosciences is seeking a Sr. R&D Manager - Upstream in the United States to lead upstream process development for bacterial and mammalian expression systems, including cloning, testing, and cell culture development.

This role guides projects to GMP readiness and drives cross-functional workflows across teams. This leadership position emphasizes data integrity, documentation, and communication with senior management, while fostering a collaborative startup-like environment.

Qualifications

• Masters or PhD in a Biological/Chemical Science with relevant work experience.
• Minimum 8 years of relevant working experience.
• Exposure to GMP environment.
• People leadership and staff development.
• Experience in fermentation process development.
• Hands-on with 5L to 100L fermenter (bacterial).
• Bioreactor mammalian operations experience.
• Process scale-up from R&D to production.
• Mammalian cell culture including primary cell isolation and cell line development.
• Genetic constructs for bacterial and mammalian protein expression.
• Working in a cGMP environment.
• Strong management and communication skills; excellent documentation.
• Organizational skills; independent, self-motivated, detail-oriented.
• Team player; capable of multi-tasking in a compliance-driven setting.
• Fluent in English; travel up to 15%.

Responsibilities

• Lead upstream process development (bacterial and mammalian) and manufacturing align with business goals.
• Troubleshoot technical challenges during R&D and manufacturing.
• Lead production of cell banks for bacterial and mammalian systems.
• Develop mammalian clones and characterization for clonal products and banking.
• Maintain manufacturing records and ensure data quality.
• Present data to department and project teams; write SOPs and reports.
• Assess project scope, schedule, and budget; ensure timely delivery.
• Research, design and evaluate materials, processes, and equipment.
• Suggest training tools to enhance performance; monitor metrics.
• Oversee documentation of all phases of R&D.

Skills

GMP experience

Fermentation development

Cell culture

Team leadership

Process scale-up

Cloning & expression

Data analysis

Documentation

English communication

Project management

Independent work

Travel readiness

Education

Master's or PhD in Biological/Chemical Science

Job description

FUJIFILM Biosciences is seeking a Sr. R&D Manager - Upstream in the United States to lead upstream process development for bacterial and mammalian expression systems, including cloning, testing, and cell culture development.

This role guides projects to GMP readiness and drives cross-functional workflows across teams. This leadership position emphasizes data integrity, documentation, and communication with senior management, while fostering a collaborative startup-like environment.