Assay Group Lead

Location London

Compensation £60-70k based on experience, plus equity

Contract type Full time, permanent

Who we are

FabricNano (fabricnano.com) is a venture-backed startup. We aim to revolutionise the synthesis of biomolecules – plastics, fuels, fragrances, flavours, medicines, and more. We immobilize multi-enzyme cascades with increased yield, higher purity, and lower synthesis costs. You would join a passionate team at an exciting early stage to help build our culture and initial products.

Summary of the role

You will be leading the assay team function to deliver excellent results and collaborating across the wider team to develop exciting immobilized enzyme processes. You will work to identify the best assay methodologies and their automation given the requirements of our proprietary technology. You will need to be a strong communicator across various scientific functions and ensure that there is scientific excellence in the assay domain. You should be comfortable assessing the full range of quantitative requirements for enzyme assay development and validation, be highly proficient with key analytical techniques such as HPLC, UV/VIS, etc. and the associated data analysis required for reporting your findings. As a People Lead, you will be responsible for the personal and professional development of a number of scientists, helping them to become high performers and pushing the boundaries of science. This role interfaces with all aspects of the wider team, servicing their assay needs and business-critical function - the right candidate will have the opportunity to impact our people as well as transform our assay capabilities, processes and FN as a whole.

What you'll do in this role

Leading:

• Leading the assay team function to continued success at FN in a collaborative, transparent and delivery focussed way to bolster our continued and future success.
• Nurturing excellent scientific results and professional development from the assay team to deliver excellent results for the wider team.
• Take ownership of and refine our current enzyme assay and protein quantification practices to lead us to a place beyond existing industry-leading standards.
• Leading your fellow scientists and pushing their personal and professional development.

Process:

• Owns and further builds out our assay development and validation processes by working with the assay and broader team to generate robust manual and automated assays.
• Develops enabling ways of working that facilitate the automation of all enzyme assays developed by the assay team, creating a decentralised “on-demand” assay function across teams, whilst minimising error and maximising our throughput.

In the lab:

• Develop, diagnose and troubleshoot individual and multi-step enzyme cascades for i) enzymes in free solution and ii) those immobilized with FNs proprietary technology and reporting their outcome through lab reports and presentations.
• Enable the assay team to perform the automated transfer of all assays onto the Hamilton STAR liquid handler alongside in house automation expertise and bringing your own experience.
• Design and use of DoE to optimise the best conditions for maximal performance of respective bioconversions

At the desk:

• Ensures excellent and timely scientific documentation for internal and external reports, processes and SOPs from the assay team.
• Ensure scientific data is quantified with high accuracy and precision, is recorded to a high standard, that is both transparent and peer-reviewed where necessary.
• Work with Data Team to capture key results that adhere to FAIR data principles and automate their analysis where possible.

What we're looking for

Experience with the following is E = essential or D = desirable:

• Industrial experience leading an assay function (E)
• People lead experience (E)
• Industrial assays method development and validation of enzyme assays (E)
• Extensive hands-on experience using: HPLC, plate readers, GC-MS (E)
• Great troubleshooting experience of analytical devices and processes (E)
• Hands-on automation experience (Hamilton STAR is our robot of choice but we are open to others) (E)
• Excellent experiment design knowledge i.e. DoE would be a plus (D)

What you'll receive

Financial

A generous stock option plan

Time Off

20 days annual leave + 8 days bank holiday

Generous sick leave and mental health days

Enhanced parental leave (16 weeks full pay for primary caregiver, 8 weeks full pay for secondary caregiver)

Wellbeing

We partner with Spill to provide remote emotional support to staff

Development

£200 professional learning and development stipend ‍

£100 personal development stipend

Plus books, courses and events. We encourage personal development in every form

Team-building

Monthly team lunches on us plus weekly bagel mornings

A range of social events

Our Company Values

• Always choose candor.
• Be curious about each other’s work.
• Busy doesn't count; results do.
• If you aren't thriving, your work isn't thriving.
• This is your business.
  

Equal Opportunity Employer. We are proud of our commitment to diversity & inclusion.

How to apply. Applications will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis.