Position

Senior Scientist I – Protein Engineering

Mission

Solugen’s mission is to decarbonize chemicals manufacturing. As a first step, Solugen is building a 10,000 tpy first commercial plant with the potential to offset up to 37,000 tpy of carbon dioxide equivalents. This role will directly support Solugen’s mission by continuously improving Solugen’s core catalytic platform. As the activity, selectivity, stability, and manufacturing cost of Solugen’s core catalytic platform continuously improves, the quality of Solugen’s products and our cost to manufacture improve.

Key Outcomes

Research

• Work in close collaboration with Enzymology team members to design and execute protein engineering experiments
• Identify novel or evolved enzymes that fit the requirements of Solugen chemoenzymatic reaction cascades
• Develop and optimize enzyme engineering experiment procedures, including assay development, HTP of cultivation and library screening
• Maintain a safe and orderly laboratory in compliance with all safety policies and practices
• Write standard operating procedures related to enzyme technologies
• Engage in new product design, development, and testing

Key Competencies

Job Specific

• Attention to detail and organization
• Ability to exercise common molecular biology techniques including microbial cell culture, sterile field technique, isolation of nucleic acids, polymerase chain reaction, cloning, restriction digests, nucleic acid and protein gel electrophoresis, centrifugation, autoclaving, and pipetting
• Previous experience on protein engineering with directed evolution or structure-guided protein design
• Ability to conduct library design/construction with a variety of techniques, such as random mutagenesis, site-directed mutagenesis, and combinatorial mutagenesis
• Previous experience with in vivo or in vitro assay development
• Ideally with experience in automation, including a variety of liquid handling systems
• Ideally with experience in protein visualization (PyMol, VMD, etc.) and modeling
• Ability to run fermentation experiments for protein production in deep well plates and shake flasks
• Ability to generate reports and visualize data in an organized, timely, quantitative, and thorough manner
• Good communication, negotiation, leadership, and project management skills with the desire to further develop these skills as the company grows
• Comfortable following safety protocols and wearing personal protective equipment—including laboratory coats, eye protection, and close toed shoes --in work zones
• Good familiarity with Office products as well as a general level of comfort with online communication and work management platforms such as Dropbox, Google Doc, and Slack
• Analytical approach to problem solving, with a focus on managing a team environment with attention to results and a sense of urgency

Company Specific

• Be nimble, embrace the speed and ambiguity of startup culture
• A passion for green chemistry and fighting climate change
• Ability to self-manage and set your own priorities and schedule
• Be comfortable working in multiple roles
• Emphasize safety above all else
• Respect for others
• Creative problem solving
• Willingness to learn and research new engineering/science concepts

Qualifications

PhD with two years of work experience in molecular biology, biochemistry, bioengineering, or related field.

Full-time relocation to Houston

Solugen is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other legally protected status.

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