Senior Scientist, Upstream Fermentation R&D

• Lead cultivation and study of a broad range of microbial species, from our current focus on lactic acid bacteria to industry workhorses such as E. coli, P. pastoris , and B. subtilis ; also handle strains with challenging traits.
• Develop media to enhance productivity and stability at lab scale, with the potential (not required) to extend into bioprocess development (e.g., feeding strategies, temperature, pH) at lab and production scale.
• Design, validate, and standardize assays that inform media/bioprocess choices and support strain characterization, functional testing, and QC.
• Translate customer requirements into lean, milestone-driven scientific research plans that optimize speed, cost, and decision quality in a resource-conscious startup environment.
• Collaborate with lab automation and data science teams to design scalable, model-ready data capture for fermentation parameters and metabolite panels.
• Lead and develop junior scientists/technicians to execute experiments precisely and maintain rigorous documentation, enforcing SOP/QA standards.

Qualifications:

• Ph.D. (or equivalent work experience) in Microbiology or related field
• 3+ years in industrial or translational research in microbial fermentation (probiotics/(agri)food/cosmetics preferred).
• Proven ownership and hands-on experience in cultivation and media development across lactid acid bacteria, B. subtilis , E. coli , and yeasts in an industrial/bioprocess setting; exposure to challenging traits (fastidious, anaerobic) is a plus. Strong depth in at least one is sufficient.
• Assay developer at heart with demonstrated design/validation of microbiology assays.
• Demonstrated ownership with hands-on execution in a fast-paced, resource-constrained research environment, proven judgment on time/budget trade-offs (build vs. buy, lab infrastructure, lean experimentation) to optimize speed, cost, and decision quality.
• Excellent written and verbal communication in English - clear stakeholder updates, customer presentations, and concise technical writing.
• Regular, in-person presence at our Freising campus or downtown Munich lab is required.

Nice-to-have:

• Hands-on experience with benchtop bioreactors; huge plus if you have demonstrated scale-up experience, from lab to production-scale.
• Experience with obligate anaerobes and otherwise challenging strains, e.g. handling fastidious, flocculent, agglutinating, sporulating strains, and working with nutritionally demanding or slow-growing microbes.
• Proven cross-functional project management across wetlab and automation/bioinformatics/bioprocess workstreams.
• Experience with Python/R/Matlab for DoE, growth/fermentation analytics, modeling-ready datasets, and light scripting; reads/writes instrument CSV/API and LIMS fields.
• Having already demonstrated a builder mindset, experience shipping in a startup or through internal research projects; comfortable with ambiguity and end-to-end ownership.

Benefits:

• High autonomy to steer scientific development, deliver ambitiously, and help build a high-performing team - be a cornerstone hire.
• State-of-the-art labs in Freising and Munich (Martinsried) with a central Munich office (close to the Central Station).
• Competitive salary + meaningful stock options.
• eGym WellPass membership.

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Source: Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis), table; dl-de/by-2-0; StarIn's calculation

Posted Nov 01, 2026

Posted Nov 01, 2026