Fermentation Engineer

Company Overview:

Oleo is an early-stage biomanufacturing company developing a platform to produce carbon-negative oil feedstocks for advanced fuel production. Our technology combines microwave hydrolysis and microbial fermentation to convert biomass waste into oil feedstocks, addressing a $21 billion market. Oleo’s platform reduces cost exposure and improves supply chain stability for energy producers, with a targeted ~22% cost reduction compared to incumbent seed oils. The technology was developed by Oleo’s founders at Stanford University and is in the process of being scaled to the 300L setting at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Oleo is supported by Activate, DOE Leep @ Cyclotron Road, and BEAM Circular, and has received investment from Gener8tor, Safar Partners, Alpine Social Ventures, Collab Fund, and G-Force.

Role Description: Fermentation Engineer

We are looking for an experienced fermentation engineer to join the Oleo team to lead the optimization and scale up of our fermentation process. In this position you will be responsible for advancing key components of Oleo’s technology, optimizing fermentation parameters for microbial oil production in a laboratory setting, and scaling said processes up through the pre-pilot and pilot phases. This role is in-person, based in Berkeley CA. Our team will look to you to design and lead fermentation optimization experiments and scale up, as well as daily operations in our lab.

Primary Responsibilities of this Role Include:

• Media optimization: Optimizing biomass media tailored to Oleo’s proprietary microorganism to maximize fermentation efficiency.

• Fermentation process optimization: Conducting laboratory-scale fermentation experiments to study the impact of static and dynamic parameters on fermentation outcomes, with the goal of maximizing growth rate and lipid production.

• Data analysis and interpretation: Analyzing fermentation data to identify trends, optimize parameters, and draw conclusions about process improvements.

• Scale-up and production support: Transferring optimized fermentation processes to larger production scales, troubleshooting issues, and ensuring consistent product quality.

  • Designing and conducting runs of 300L, 1,000L, and 9,000-15,000 L bioreactors, including seed train development.

  • Replicating optimized laboratory scale results in pilot scale reactors.

  • Procuring equipment for product recovery and downstream processing.

  • Collaborating with contract manufacturing organizations and other manufacturing/scale-up partners.

• Characterization: Characterizing biomass, hydrolysates, and oil samples via mass spectrometry to inform the development of specification sheets and provide inputs to technoeconomic models.

As the Ideal Candidate, you would bring

• PhD in molecular biology, molecular engineering, microbiology, bioengineering, chemical engineering, biochemistry, or other related fields, with 1-3 years of industry experience.

• Expert knowledge of microbial fermentation and biomanufacturing. Experience running bioreactors for the laboratory to pilot setting (500mL-15,000L).

• Culturing and maintaining non-model yeast including media preparation and preparing inoculum.

• Demonstrated competency designing and executing experiments, and making data driven decisions based on experimental outcomes.

• A sense of initiative and organizational acumen to prioritize research efforts and take ownership of projects from ideation to implementation.

• The resilience to overcome technical challenges and persevere through bottlenecks to ensure successful project implementation.

• The ability to effectively communicate and collaborate with teammates, stakeholders, and suppliers.

• Ability to leverage physical and chemical characterization techniques, including mass spectrometry, to measure key properties of cellulosic hydrolysates and microbial lipids.

Nice to haves

• Previous experience with protein expression and microbial host engineering.

• CAD competency for the design of custom laboratory equipment.

• Knowledge of statistical methods including design of experiments.

What we offer

• Annual salary of $110,000, with potential for expanded responsibilities and corresponding compensation growth as the company advances through the seed stage.

• Company equity.

• Healthcare and dental insurance.

• Competitive PTO.

Unfortunately at this time, we are unable to sponsor visas.

We are focused on building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you’re excited about this role, but do not meet 100% of the qualifications listed above, we encourage you to apply.