Research Associate II
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Employment type:
Full time
Experience required:
Intermediate
Salary
Salary not provided
About the company:
By growing meat directly from animal cells we're making future-friendly, real meat that makes you and the world smile. We stand for all of the good, and none of the bad. UPSIDE Foods is making our favorite food a force for good.
About us:
Based in Berkeley, CA, UPSIDE Foods grows meat, poultry, and seafood directly from real 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 doing so, the company aims to address some of the most pressing environmental, animal welfare, and public health challenges, while still giving people the meat they love.
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) and to sell a cultivated meat product in the United States. 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 World Changing Ideas Awards, 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:
This Research Associate II will be responsible for helping build and execute on platforms for early-stage cell screening and characterization, and upstream process development to support cell line development efforts. This role will have a focus in continued development and implementation of our automated cell culture workflow and assist in experimentation in controlled bioreactors. The Research Associate should be capable of troubleshooting and executing experiments independently while employing critical thinking and organizational skills. This laboratory-based position requires performing experiments/assays on a daily basis, followed by data analysis and interpretation, presentation of findings to the relevant teams, and suggestion of follow-up experiments. You should be a tenacious and adaptable team player.
Responsibilities include:
- Technology Integration: Establish high-throughput and automated suspension cell culture, liquid dispensing, and imaging platforms. Serve as super-user to enable cross-functional use of established workflows.
- Cell Culture and Process Development: Perform experiments in bench-scale vessels and bioreactors, execute routine cell culture assays, and optimize processes to drive cellular attributes. Support upstream process development to prove out capabilities of cell lines. Take initiative to improve the efficiency of lab processes.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with functional teams across R&D, Manufacturing, and Product Development to collect data across scales.
- Experimental Design: Collect, manage, and organize experimental data. Present data in internal team meetings and cross-functional program meetings. Provide input for further experiments based on data and objectives.
About you:
- B.S. in relevant scientific/technical area with 2+ years of relevant work experience, A.S. in relevant scientific/technical area with 4+ years of relevant work experience, OR M.S. in relevant scientific/technical area.
- Hands-on experience with cell culture processes required. Experience with suspension cell culture, automated liquid handlers, and controlled bioreactors a plus.
- Proficiency in programming (e.g., Python) required and data science experience is a plus.
- Strong written and oral communication skills. Comfort with frequent presentation and discussion of results.
- Strong background in experimental data analysis and documentation.
- Comfortable working in a fast-paced and cross-functional environment.
Who you’ll work with:
- This role sits within the Cell Line Development functional team, but will work closely with the Cell Culture Media and Process Development teams as part of their cross-functional projects.
- Additionally, this role will collaborate with Food R&D teams including material characterization, sensory, and product development teams for the purpose of understanding the impact of the levers we pull on the product as food.
Key Contributions in First Year:
- Increase the experimental throughput of the Cell Line Development team through significant hands-on contributions.
- Investigate innovative methods for producing cultivated meat to generate the data that will enable organization level prioritization decisions.
- Build and optimize automated, high-throughput platforms for media screening and cell culture.
Compensation Range: $75,000 - $85,000*
*Pay may vary depending on factors including job-related knowledge and skills.
*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
- Employee Engagement Council
- 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.
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