Cell Culture Specialist

We're looking for a Cell Culture Specialist to join our awesome team.

Your experience with mammalian tissue culture will make you an essential member of our technical team. You will conduct routine tissue culture, high-throughput screening, cell line development, and media optimisation for stem cell growth and differentiation. Working alongside a brilliant group of scientists, engineers and specialists, you will support our journey towards large-scale production of cultivated fat.

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

What you'll do

As a member of our R&D team, you will perform critical cell culture experiments and ensure the smooth, day-to-day operation of tissue culture at Hoxton Farms. You will work in our state-of-the-art tissue culture lab, supporting the entire R&D workflow—from cell line development and the creation of Master Cell Banks to bioprocess optimisation.

You'll gain expertise with cutting-edge equipment and analytical techniques in a lab environment that merges tissue culture and food science. Depending on your skill set and project alignment, you may contribute to the following areas:

• Perform routine cell culture and cryopreservation
• Optimise and test media formulations for diverse culture systems
• Develop cell lines in adherent and suspension cultures to enhance proliferation and differentiation
• Adapt cell lines to conditions that support scale-up processes
• Support bioprocess development to improve cell densities in mammalian suspension cultures
• Implement cell-based assays and validate media components using high-throughput techniques

What we're looking for

You should have at least one year's experience working in a mammalian tissue culture laboratory within academia or industry, including some of the following:

• An undergraduate degree (or equivalent experience in industry) in life sciences or a related discipline
• Mammalian stem cell culture and differentiation
• GLP- or GMP-compliant tissue culture techniques
• Cell bank creation and testing experience
• Cell line development workflows, including cell screening for defined outputs and single-cell cloning of mammalian cells
• Hands-on experience with mammalian suspension cultures in shake flasks or spinner vessels.
• Process optimisation to improve cell densities and/or differentiation of mammalian cells
• Enthusiasm, curiosity and attention to detail

Bonus points for experience with

• ATMP R&D or manufacture
• Sterile culture media preparation
• Laboratory automation
• High-throughput imaging, flow cytometry, and cell sorting
• Hands-on experience with stirred-tank vessels or other bioreactor formats
• Media development and bioprocessing
• Lab inventory management
• ELN/LIMS

Why join us?

• We're tackling real-world problems through cutting-edge bioreactor technology and sustainable solutions. Join us, and you won't just be doing a job - you'll be shaping the future of food and biotech sustainability.
• Combine stem cell biology with deep bioreactor work to meet ambitious scale-up goals in a brand new industry.
• Work with expert and motivated teams of cell biology, bioprocess, production, hardware and software to implement a novel bioreactor platform for food and biotech.
• Join a fast-paced startup culture that values collaboration, integrity, and shared success.

The benefits:

Highly competitive salary (£38k per year)

Stock option plan

Brand new lab and office in Old Street

Weekly socials and events

Pension plan (matching up to 5% + salary sacrifice)

25 days' holiday + bank holidays

Supportive and collaborative environment

Being part of something amazing

About Hoxton Farms

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.

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