About General Biological:

General Biological (GB) is a pioneering industrial chemical and hardware manufacturing company developing the next generation of sustainable, low-cost biomanufacturing technologies. Our mission is to establish a new era of chemical products and physical materials derived from renewable carbohydrates rather than fossil fuels.

Central to our approach is vertical integration - positioning ourselves at the intersection of biotechnology, chemistry, and integrated hardware-software engineering to rapidly scale our innovative technology stack. The GB platform harnesses a non-model organism with remarkable metabolic flexibility and low sterility requirements, allowing us to truly industrialize biotech. By building custom bioreactor hardware and downstream operations, we fully leverage these properties to dramatically reduce capital and operating costs while accelerating implementation.

GB is assembling our founding team to join us in building a generational company that will transform scalable bioproduction practices for modern heavy industry. For more, see generalbiological.com

Summary:

We are seeking an exceptional Strain Engineering Lead to drive the development of our non-model bioproduction platform. Your primary responsibilities in this role will revolve around engineering our microbial production host to produce targeted specialty and commodity chemicals. You will lead a team of scientists and work alongside engineers to develop and optimize protocols for iterative strain engineering, evaluation, and deployment.

As GB pursues vertical integration, you will have exciting opportunities to contribute to interdisciplinary project teams working on end-to-end hardware and process solutions. We are looking for someone who thrives on project ownership, ensuring timely execution, managing independent work streams, tracking budgets, and aligning efforts with our broader vision.

The ideal candidate will help drive GB's success by engineering metabolic pathways to hit target production metrics for molecules of interest at pilot scale using various alternative feedstocks. This role involves hands-on work, protocol development, and problem-solving - requiring a first principles mindset and willingness to take calculated risks.

Essential Functions:

· Provide strategic leadership and direction in the design and execution of experiments to achieve team objectives and align with company goals

· Apply in-depth understanding of cellular metabolism and processes to guide the engineering of production strains and optimize bioprocess metrics

· Oversee the development, implementation, and optimization of novel and standard genome editing and molecular biology techniques

· Design and execute robust assays to measure strain performance and guide data-driven decision making

· Foster strong cross-functional collaboration with downstream and hardware teams in a tightly-integrated environment while proactively identifying and resolving challenges

Education and Experience:

Required

· Ph.D. or M.S. in molecular biology, microbiology, or a related field with a minimum of 2 years of experience in industrial biotechnology; or, B.S. with a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience

· Proven track record of technical expertise and innovation, demonstrated through prior projects, publications, open-source work, or other notable achievements

· Demonstrated experience in project management and leadership, with the ability to guide and motivate teams to achieve objectives

Preferred

· Experience in chemical engineering or process development, with a solid understanding of the interplay between strain engineering and downstream processes

· Familiarity with analytical chemistry techniques such as HPLC, LC-MS, and NMR, and their application in strain performance assessment

· Expertise in working with non-model organisms and adapting engineering strategies to optimize their performance

· Knowledge of adaptive laboratory evolution techniques and their implementation in strain development pipelines

Salary and benefits:

GB offers comprehensive benefits including:

• Stock options
• Full medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Relocation stipend
• Parking allowance
• Unlimited PTO

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