Amai Proteins is the tasty Designer Protein company. Amai (means ‘sweet’ in Japanese) Pro-Protein platform combines: (a) AI Computational Protein Design (AI-CPD) to design proteins that are fit to the mass food market as to stability, taste, and other attributes; (b) microbial precision fermentation production in an array of host organisms and (c) food technology to assess the Designer Proteins and integrate them to consumer-packaged goods. In this framework, Amai assesses numerous proteins in an array of host organisms from small lab-scale to very large industrial scales.
As a Director of Biotechnology you will manage, give technical leadership and support across the biotechnology department. These teams include dozens of researchers and are expected to significantly grow in the near future. The teams include: 1) the molecular biology and cloning team, 2) the fermentation development team, the Downstream process development team and 4) The analytical development team.
The Director of Biotechnology will utilize technical expertise in microbial (bacteria, yeast and fungi) cell line development, cell culture process development of proteins to advance USP development of different proteins for the food industry. The Director of Biotechnology will also utilize technical expertise in protein extraction, purification and analysis. The Director will ensure the speed, cost effectiveness, and technical quality of all the biotechnology department activities. The individual works independently and in cross-functional teams, leads and drives selected technical initiatives and projects, and works effectively with numerous internal and third-party partners. The individual has familiarity with microbial strain development and fermentation, protein purification and analysis as they will be working closely with these groups, in addition to a general working knowledge of Biologics CMC .
Job description:
Stay abreast of technical advancements in the USP area of microbial cell line development and fermentation process development.
Stay abreast of technical advancements in DSP development and analysis of proteins for the food industry.
Apply technical knowledge and expertise and technology transfer to the pilot group and to different CMOs.
Support transfer, development, and scale-up of the production process from research into process development and scale up to enable production.
Collaborate with internal and external partners in pilot, food, computation and regulation groups to reach the company’s goals.
Deliver technical support to ensure successful small and pilot production, and to develop and implement process improvements as programs advance.
Lead and support various elements of early-stage process development activities.
Analyze, interpret, present and document the technical information in support of regulation objectives.
Work with contract development manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) and collaborators around the world to help define project scope, review proposals, and oversee technical work, including reports review and approval.
Participate in grant writing and support the execution of the resulting collaborations.
Contribute to process regulatory strategies and submissions, and quality documentation.
Work to establish, maintain, and lead internal upstream process development.
Requirements:
PhD in biology, biochemistry, biochemical engineering or related field.
A minimum of five years experience of relevant process development for protein production using microbial precision fermentation.
Experience with clone selection, fermentation process optimization in various formats, DSP and protein analytical development, and process scale up.
Demonstrated capability of working independently on complex technical problems, effectively in cross-functional teams, and with external CDMOs and partners.
Experience planning, generating, analyzing, and linking experimental capabilities and results to critical process objectives.
Ability to travel to conferences and to business- and R&D partners abroad.
Knowledge/Skills:
Expertise in CMC process development.
Broad and deep knowledge of CMC biologics processes.
Working knowledge of protein production and microbial cell line development workflows.
Ability to apply technical knowledge to CMC development and manufacturing for biologics across the product life cycle.
Ability to collaborate with and lead effectively cross-functionally and in a team setting, both internally and with external CDMOs and partners.
Ability to multi-task in a fast-paced dynamic environment while delivering high quality work.
Sets goals with understanding of priority and impact to the program, department, and organization.
Creative thinker and complex problem solver.
Must have outstanding interpersonal relations and team working capabilities.
