Position Title: Senior Scientist, Bioprocess R&D (full-time)
Company Overview:
PBS Biotech, Inc. is a private company based in Camarillo, CA, that manufactures and sells revolutionary single-use bioreactors that are ideal for scale up of cell and gene therapy manufacturing. With a fully equipped in-house laboratory, we also provide world-class contract services for manufacturing process development with leading expertise in various cell and gene therapy product types.
Job Description:
PBS Biotech is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Senior Scientist, Bioprocess R&D, to join our growing bioprocess development team. This role will serve as a scientific leader responsible for designing and executing complex research programs, supporting customer projects, advancing internal product development initiatives, and contributing to the company's scientific reputation through publications and conference presentations.
The successful candidate will provide technical leadership, mentor junior team members, and collaborate cross-functionally to develop innovative cell culture processes and manufacturing solutions utilizing PBS bioreactor technologies.
This position is an invaluable opportunity to gain experience working with cutting edge technology and a variety of cell types that are significant to the rapidly emerging cell and gene therapy market.
Responsibilities and Tasks:
- Lead and provide scientific direction for the development, optimization, and scale-up of various cell culture processes supporting customer programs and internal product initiatives.
- Design, execute, and oversee experiments for cell culture process development, optimization, characterization, and scale-up.
- Serve as a technical subject matter expert for cell culture processes, bioreactor operations, and cell therapy manufacturing technologies.
- Conduct root-cause analyses for unexpected results and develop innovative approaches to improve cell culture process performance and product quality.
- Characterize critical quality attributes of cells throughout cell culture process development, either independently or in collaboration with customers, partners, or external service providers.
- Support internal product improvement efforts by generating biological performance data and evaluating the impact of PBS technologies on cell culture processes.
- Prepare scientific data and author peer-reviewed publications, white papers, conference abstracts, technical reports, and presentations.
- Present scientific findings and recommendations to customers, collaborators, and internal stakeholders.
- Mentor junior scientists and research associates in experimental design, data analysis, and cell culture process development.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Product Management, Applications, Manufacturing, Quality, and Commercial teams to advance cell culture process development initiatives.
- Support technology transfer and scale-up activities for cell culture processes into process development and manufacturing environments.
Qualifications/ Skills/ Requirements:
- PhD in Chemical Engineering or Biotechnology with a focus on bioprocessing, or thesis-based MSc in Chemical Engineering or Biotechnology with 7-10 years cell culture lab experience
- Extensive hands-on experience with cell therapy process development, including pluripotent stem cells (PSC/iPSC), T cells, NK cells, or other advanced cell therapy platforms.
- Ability to design experiments independently using logical and systematic approaches
- Advanced knowledge of bioreactors, cell characterization techniques, including flow cytometry, cell counting, metabolic analysis, viability assessment, and functional assays.
- Excellent project management and organizational skills to develop detailed experimental plans
- Strong oral and written communication skills including generation of accurate and timely progress reports for internal and external purposes
- Experience completing peer-reviewed journal publications and abstract generation and presentation at conferences
- Experience with tech transfer of R&D processes to PD or cGMP manufacturing is a plus
- Demonstrated ability to independently lead scientific projects from concept through completion.
- Experience mentoring scientists, research associates, interns, or cross-functional project teams.
- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, collaborative, and customer-focused environment.
- Proximity to Ventura County and flexible schedule to allow for weekend work on experiments as needed