Senior Fermentation Scientist - Sumitomo Biorational Company

**About Sumitomo Biorational Company:** Headquartered in Libertyville, Ill., Sumitomo Biorational Company is the Global Center of Excellence for Biorational Innovation, advancing integrated, science-driven solutions in agriculture, public health, forest health, and environmental markets. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd., Sumitomo Biorational operates through three divisions: AgroSolutions, Environmental Health (MGK), and Public Health & Forest Health, leveraging decades of expertise to drive innovation and sustainability for customers worldwide. **Description of Job**: Lead internal upstream process development efforts at the Sumitomo Biorational Company Biorational Research Center by conducting fermentation experiments in laboratory- and pilot-scale bioreactors. Evaluate the performance of microbial strain candidates by analysis and interpretation of fermentation data. Work with a team of fermentation scientists, downstream process engineers, formulations scientists, microbial engineers and analytical chemists to develop sustainable biorational solutions within the expanding field of BioAgriculture. **Principal Responsibilities:** - Design and implement upstream processes to optimize strain performance of bacterial and fungal microorganisms to produce microbial products, metabolites and proteins - Mentor junior team members by training safe and proper use of fermentation and analytical equipment required to execute process development and improvement experiments - Provide guidance to research associates and support their professional development - Take primary responsibility for the operation and troubleshooting of pilot scale fermentation equipment - Design scale up and scale down experiments to execute seamless technology transfer between Research and Manufacturing operations - Build strong relationships with supporting research departments and deliver fermentations on time or ahead of schedule to biology, downstream processing, formulations, and product development teams - Travel to manufacturing site to launch new fermentation processes and troubleshoot current commercial processes - Maintain and further develop collaborative relationship with the pilot and production fermentation team at the manufacturing site - Execute sophisticated process development experiments utilizing statistical tools to ensure process robustness - Work alongside data scientists, IT, and engineering to build and maintain a digital system to organize and archive run data and electronic batch records - Maintain and update laboratory data and documents including electronic lab notebook and SOPs - Conduct all work in strict compliance with all applicable safety requirements, containment requirements, standards operating procedures and/or guidelines while maintaining a clean and orderly workspace - Work both independently and with interdisciplinary research teams while maintaining a positive and collaborative environment **Required skills/experience:** - Expertise in culturing microorganisms, including filamentous fungi, to increase metabolite productivity using aseptic techniques Hands-on experience using lab-scale or pilot-scale SIP bioreactor systems for microbial cultivations and metabolite production, particularly with non-model bacterial and fungal organisms - Experience training junior scientists in the use of fermentation equipment and execution of process development experiments - High degree of competency in the Microsoft Office 365 suite and statistical analysis software - Strong communication, presentation, and listening skills in cross-functional teams - Willingness to foster a culture of diversity and inclusion. - Able to lift up to 25 lbs **Education**: Degree in Fermentation Science, Chemical/Biochemical/Biosystems Engineering, or closely related field with industrial fermentation experience (5 years with PhD, 8 years with MS, 12+ years with BS). **Travel:** Limited travel will be required. (<5%) **What We O…