Sr. Scientist, Process Development

About us

Based in Berkeley, CA, UPSIDE Foods grows meat, poultry, and seafood directly from animal cells.  These products are not vegan or vegetarian—they are delicious meat, made without the need to raise and slaughter billions of animals. In a historic first, UPSIDE Foods received regulatory approval to sell its product in the US in June 2023.

Founded as the world’s first cultivated meat company in 2015, UPSIDE Foods (formerly Memphis Meats) has achieved numerous industry-defining milestones, including being the first company to produce multiple species of meat (beef, chicken, and duck). The company believes that people shouldn’t have to choose between the foods they love and a thriving planet, and is working to build a better food system with access to delicious, humane, and sustainable meat, poultry, and seafood. UPSIDE Foods has won various industry awards, including New York Times’ Good Tech Awards, FastCo’s Next Big Thing in Tech, and the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation by the National Association for Business Resources. UPSIDE Foods has raised a total of $608 million, including from the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (ADG), Baillie Gifford, Bill Gates, Cargill, John Doerr, John Mackey, Kimbal and Christiana Musk, Norwest, Richard Branson, Softbank, Temasek, Threshold, Tyson Foods, and others.

About this Job

UPSIDE has experienced hypergrowth over the last two years in the rapidly developing cultivated meat industry. We are seeking an innovative individual who enjoys fast-paced growth and is passionate about changing the future of food. The R&D Senior Scientist within process development will be responsible for developing and running experimental designs to understand and optimize our cultivation processes. You will lead experiments, analyze and interpret data, communicate results, and drive research forward. In addition, you will mentor and develop junior associates within the process development team to foster internal growth.

Responsibilities Include

• Independently drive lab scale (0.2 L - 36 L)  bioreactor, cell culture, and harvest experiments that include novel technology implementation, development, and characterization

• Plan, execute, and analyze cultivation experiments with complex data sets to understand mass balances and metabolic shifts

• Lead cross-functional efforts to collect, interpret, and analyze data to determine next steps for the department

• Thoroughly plan future experiments using a data driven approach based on the strategic goals of the program

• Designing experiments in traditional and high throughput cell culture platforms at varying scales (e.g. shake flask, benchtop bioreactor)

• Mentoring junior team members and developing their scientific skills

• Fostering scientific scholarship via internal/external networking and leading regular literature reviews

About You

• Ph.D. with 5+ years of experience in chemical engineering, bioprocessing, bioengineering or closely related field; BS/MS candidates with 12+ years of research and development experience in the biopharmaceutical, cell therapy, or similar industry are encouraged to apply

• Industrial bench scale research experience

• Skilled with JMP for navigating and analyzing large data sets

• Confident with classical bioreactor scaling concepts and able to apply these concepts to novel meat cultivation processes

• Strong critical thinker who is comfortable solving unique scientific challenges by learning from peers, seminars, and scientific literature

• Possess the technical and people skills to elevate the performance of team members in your orbit

• Experience working in a fast-paced and highly collaborative environment

Desirable skills

• Deep knowledge/understanding of scale-up considerations for large-scale bioreactors.

• Mammalian or avian cell culture and recombinant protein expression.

• Extensive experience in designing and executing DOE-based experiments

Who you’ll work with…

• You will collaborate very closely with scientists and engineers from varying functions such as cell line development, cell culture media development, process engineering, and data teams to formulate and execute a strategy for scalable, cultivated meat. 

Key Contributions in First Year…

• Lead and support critical path process development studies 

• Support technology transfer activities to the EPIC production facility

Compensation Range: $95,250 - $165,000*
*Pay may vary depending on factors, including job-related knowledge and skills. 

UPSIDE Benefits!

• Stock options for all full-time incoming team members!

• 90-100% employer-paid healthcare premiums for team members (medical [including HSA and FSA], dental, and vision)

• Pet insurance for your furry family members!

• Unlimited PTO

• DE&I (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) Council and People Engagement Programs

• Company-sponsored learning & development opportunities

UPSIDE Foods is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Our company-wide mission is to create a product for everyone, so we are deeply committed to having teams and leaders that reflect this mission.