Process Development Scientist

Your experience with suspension cultures and bioprocessing will make you an essential member of our R&D team. You will support our process development through the optimisation of culture parameters in suspension shake flasks and in Hoxton Farm's proprietary bioreactors. You will work alongside our team of scientists, engineers, and technicians, to support our journey towards large-scale production of cultivated fat. You'll develop expertise with cutting-edge equipment and analytical techniques in a lab that combines tissue culture with food science.

At every step, you will play a huge role in shaping the future of food.

You will spend your time in our tissue culture lab, supporting and developing our scale-up process, through optimising cell culture and bioprocess parameters in suspension, designing and testing scale-up processes, and operating bench-scale bioreactors.

What you'll do:

• Optimise cell culture and bioprocess parameters to enhance cell density and promote efficient differentiation in suspension shake flasks.

• Monitor media utilisation and critical bioprocess parameters to guide continuous process improvement.

• Assess and demonstrate the scalability of optimised cell culture and bioprocess conditions across different culture volumes and formats.

• Validate and refine newly developed processes in bench-scale bioreactors to support subsequent technology transfer to the production team.

• Optimise downstream processing workflows to improve product yield, recovery, and overall process efficiency.

What we're looking for:

• A minimum of 2 years' experience in a mammalian tissue culture lab in industry or academia.

• A PhD (or equivalent experience in industry) in tissue engineering, chemical engineering, biotechnology, cell biology, biophysics or a related discipline.

• Practical experience with mammalian suspension cultures using shake flasks, spinner vessels, stirred-tank vessels, and bioreactors.

• Experience in process optimisation for increased cell density or improved differentiation efficiency in mammalian cells in suspension.

• Experience with bioprocess monitoring and analytical instrumentation.

• Proficiency in conducting media analysis, including metabolite, pH, and osmolality evaluations.

• Familiarity with cell line development processes, including high-throughput cell screening for defined outputs.

• Experience in development of downstream processing methods.

• R&D project management.

• GLP- or GMP-compliant tissue culture techniques.

• Enthusiasm, curiosity and attention to detail.

• A talent for teamwork and collaboration.

Bonus points for experience with:

• ATMP R&D or manufacture

• Sterile culture media preparation

• Stem cell expansion and differentiation

• Developing scale-down models for high-throughput screening

• Establishment of Master and Working Cell Banks

• Laboratory automation

• Lab inventory management

• Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN) software

Why join us?

• Be a key player in establishing and scaling a bioprocess that allows us to scale cultivated fat and meet ambitious commercial targets

• Work alongside expert cell biology, bioprocess, hardware and software teams to implement a novel bioreactor platform for food and biotech

• Join a fast-paced startup culture that values responsibility, agency and technical excellence

Perks & benefits:

Highly competitive salary (£55k)

Stock option plan

Brand new lab and office in Old Street

Weekly socials and events

Pension plan (matching up to 5%)

25 days' holiday + bank holidays

Supportive and collaborative environment

Being part of something amazing

Hoxton Farms grow cultivated pork fat, a healthy and delicious ingredient for the food industry. Cofounded in 2020 by Max Jamilly and Ed Steele, we are building the world's most scalable and cost-effective tech stack for mammalian cell biomanufacturing – and we're monetising it with a premium B2B ingredient. Hoxton Farms are a team of 50 based in London. We have raised from investors including Founders Fund, Collab Fund, FSV/F-Prime and Global Brain.

• Healthy fats. B2B cultivated fat is fast to market and will dominate a premium niche. Compared to traditional fat, cultivated pork fat is healthier and more scalable. Hoxton Farms have commercial traction with meat/CPG companies including some of the largest food companies in Asia.

• Cost and scale. Hoxton Farms have patented scalable, low-cost, high-yield bioreactors for mammalian stem cells. We opened a pilot production facility in London in 2023.

• Team. Hoxton Farms have a brilliant and friendly team including world-class talent from the cultivated meat, biotech and engineering industries – all under one roof in central London.

Hoxton Farms is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing a working environment that embraces inclusion, diversity and belonging.

If you believe you would add value to our company but don't meet all the criteria, we would still love to hear from you. We especially encourage applications from female+, LGBTQIA+, disabled and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates, as these groups are underrepresented in the tech industry.