Senior Organism Engineer

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Job description

Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe's growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, the environment and more. Our bioengineers make use of an in-house automated foundry for designing and building new organisms. Today, our foundry is developing over 40 different organisms to make different products across multiple industries.We want to hire you because you believe that even though biology remains unpredictable and we're only scratching the surface of what is possible, you can deliver an engineered organism to spec on time, no excuses. You believe this because you have successfully engineered organisms start to finish and it *worked.* This was a herculean task that used to take a team of highly trained PhDs years to complete. Using our high-throughput automated foundry for biological engineering, we want you to do that every 6 months.ResponsibilitiesDesigning strains to optimize production of chemicals, enzymes and other proteinsDeveloping suitable cultivation conditions and assays for screening the performance of your microbesTesting the metabolic and physiological performance of your microbesAnalyzing data to identify limitations and bottlenecks in the performance of your microbes and e-designing strains based on the aboveUsing software and leveraging high-throughput machinery to assist in strain construction Collaborating with multiple stakeholders across Ginkgo to design, plan and execute demanding strain engineering and screening campaignsRolling up your sleeves, getting in the lab, and debugging any of the above as neededDesired Experience and CapabilitiesPhD in microbiology, biochemistry, genetics, chemical or biological engineering or related fieldAt least 2 years of recent industrial research experience engineering microbial metabolism or developing new synthetic biology toolsPrevious success engineering multiple microorganisms selected from yeasts, bacteria or filamentous fungiCan comfortably use software and automated workflowsDeep understanding of microbial metabolismPrior experience mentoring and/or advising team membersPrior experience in engineering secondary metabolism or natural products biosynthesis a plusTo learn more about Ginkgo, check out some recent press:What is it really like to take your company public via a SPAC? One Boston biotech shares its journey (Fortune)Ginkgo Bioworks resizes the definition of going big in biotech, raising $2.5B in a record SPAC deal that weighs in with a whopping $15B-plus valuation (Endpoints News)Ginkgo Bioworks CEO on scaling up Covid-19 testing: 'If we try, we can win' (CNBC)Ginkgo raises $70 million to ramp up COVID-19 testing for employers, universities (Boston Globe)Ginkgo Bioworks Redirects Its Biotech Platform to Coronavirus (Wall Street Journal)Ginkgo Bioworks Provides Support on Process Optimization to Moderna for COVID-19 Response (PRNewswire)The Life Factory: Synthetic Organisms From This $1.4 Billion Startup Will Revolutionize Manufacturing (Forbes)Synthetic Bio Pioneer Ginkgo Raises $290 Million in New Funding (Bloomberg)Ginkgo Bioworks raises $350 million fund for biotech spinouts (Reuters)Can This Company Convince You to Love GMOs? (The Atlantic)We also feel that it's important to point out the obvious here there's a serious lack of diversity in our industry, and that needs to change. Our goal is to help drive that change. Ginkgo is deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of its practices, especially when it comes to growing our team. Our culture promotes inclusion and embraces how rewarding it is to work with people from all walks of life.We're developing a powerful biological engineering platform, so we must remain mindful of the many ways our technology can and will impact people around the world. We care about how our platform is used, and having a diverse team to build it gives us the best chance that it's something we'll be proud of as it continues to grow. Therefore, it's critical that we incorporate the diverse voices and visions of all those who play a role in the future of biology.It is the policy of Ginkgo Bioworks to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants.Apply for this job