Senior/Principal Scientist

Me& is seeking to appoint a Senior/Principal Scientist reporting to the Scientific Director and co-founder, Dr Luis Malaver. As a member of the technical team the Senior/Principal Scientist is accountable for the design and delivery of the R&D plans, timelines and all elements of its success. This means in month one you will design and plan out the build of the R&D pipeline. Within your first year at Me& you will have set up such a pipeline for upstream development of cell-based milk production aligned with Me&’s go to market plan.

Specifically, this role will lead three key priorities in the next 6 months:

1. Establish an upstream pipeline for mammalian cell-based fermentation of milk
2. Play a key role in the  design and implementation of the company IP strategy. This input is expected to primarily focus on portfolio creation and third-party IP licensing..
3. Assisting the science leadership team to prepare documents regarding ethics compliance OGTR dealings and any other matters regarding regulatory bodies relevant for the operation of the R&D activities.
   

It is essential the Senior/ Principal Scientist is based in Melbourne and within an easy commute of the Hudson Institute in Clayton. The role is not flexible in location but part time work will be considered for the right candidate. We are laser focused on attracting the best talent globally and so would be keen to hear from any candidates willing to relocate for this position.

The detailed bits of the role

We need our Senior/ Principal Scientist to be incredible in their energy, organisation and ability to engage with stakeholders and members of our team. The role requires a technical understanding of the different aspects of bioprocessing, with and emphasis in mammalian systems and upstream processes. This is a people managing and leadership role,  that requires establishing exceptional relationships with the team and stakeholders to ensure speed and focus are at the optimum level. Self-directed and with initiative a core strength, our Senior/ Principal Scientist will prioritise mapping a R&D plan, ensuring the R&D team is at its optimal performance at all times to enable the company to reach its company goals.

Governance and Risk

• Complying with all managing risk assessments for Me& Biotech and OHSE.
• Ensuring all team members follow policies and procedures in place at Hudson Institute.
• Ensure the R&D team complies with legal and regulatory requirements.
• HSW.
  

Project Management

• Execution: make it happen. Drive the development and management of scope, develop and manage project budgets, schedules, risks and timelines.
• Collect and structure the available data impacting the project to create scenario analysis and enable timely decisions based on facts, circumstances and needs.
• Communicate progress to all relevant stakeholders in a regular structured manner.
• Establish a laboratory management plan integrating project scope and deliverables with Me&’s business goals. Develop metrics to track progress towards goals.
• In partnership with the Scientific director, build and nurture a winning team who balance exceptional commitment to outcomes with caring for each other and what Me& stands for. Lead by example, building relationships within and outside the team, demonstrating team organisation and governance.
• Apply appropriate project management tools and processes whilst engaging the necessary requisite subject matter expertise.
  

Critical to the success of the role will be the ability to:

• A hand-on, leading by example, attitude in all aspects of daily work. You understand that in the journey of a start up we all need to do whatever it takes to deliver success.
• Collaboratively design and implement processes and procedures to efficiently run the R&D pipelines and workflows.
• Implement Risk, Legal, Financial and People Management policies and practices in the R&D team as required
• Rapidly build relationships and credibility with R&D team, the broader scientific community at The Hudson Institute, and third parties assisting in the running of R&D operations.
• Ability to understand the detail of the science and contribute as appropriate to advancing progress and ideas
• Build and leverage a strong network of relationships internally at all levels of Me& and externally across the relevant scientific community
  

The ideal candidate

The successful candidate will be a seasoned research scientist or engineer with experience managing projects and people in a R&D setting that is at a minimum of the scale Me& is forecast to grow to within the next 24 months (10 FTE). They will have a technical and scientific mind and will be down to earth, warm and pragmatic in their approach. They will have the intellectual agility and gravitas to partner with the scientific director to provide the leadership fitting for the Board of Directors and investors of a high calibre research agency with a clear purpose and mandate to bring Me&’s science and technology to the world to create significant global changes to the future of children's health.

The successful candidate will be a purpose driven scientific leader who is inspired by an opportunity to have impact in the world. They must deeply believe in Me&’s purpose and the important role we will play in improving the health of vulnerable children worldwide.

• A relevant bachelor’s degree with postgraduate training at PhD/EngD Basic
• Industrial R&D experience within bioprocessing, chemical engineering or biochemical engineering, alternatively academic experience is aspect transferable to upstream processes
• GMP and relevant ISO standards for bioprocess industries working knowledge
• Experience in aspects of bioprocessing with emphasis in cell line and upstream development.
• Experience in process/lab automation
• Project management skills
• Played a lead role in setting up and running a R&D operation previously ideally multiple time
• Intellectual strength balanced with a warm and creative style
• Strategic thinking and problem-solving skills
• Exceptional organisational skills combined with a fastidious spirit: you think setting processes and procedures up, documenting and implementing them is awesome fun!
• High energy
• Team before self-attitude
  

Milestones (Six months)

A well-documented pipeline GMP’s complying for cell line design and assay validation.

High-quality well documented data that oriented to cover IP around cell line design for milk production