Scientist/Senior Scientist - Application Development

Purigen Biosystems, Inc., a Venture-backed, life science tools start-up company in the San Francisco bay area, is seeking a Scientist or Senior Scientist to join our R&D team. The Scientist/Sr. Scientist will implement and develop customer-facing application workflows for Purigen’s sample preparation technology. This is a challenging position for the highly qualified molecular biology specialist who wants to develop cutting-edge life sciences technologies in a fast-paced, start-up environment.

Responsibilities:

• Identify and implement characterization methods to validate the performance of new products being developed on the Purigen platform (e.g. digital PCR, NGS, etc.)
• Drive feasibility, optimization and validation phases of applications development as an individual contributor in close collaboration with R&D chemists, engineers, and marketing
• Design and conduct characterization experiments, and develop and refine applications workflows, using internal and external analytical resources
• Provide internal feedback to chemists and engineers on workflow and performance in order to facilitate optimization of consumable kits and platform performance (e.g. ease of use, quality, consistency, and overall application performance per defined metrics)
• Serve as a technical expert for coordination and support of early adopter customer testing - ensure alignment and readiness of platform prior to placement, and drive progress during testing at customer site (interact with test customers in training, use and support of Purigen’s platform and applications)

Required Skills:

• Must understand the principles of and have prior experience using commercial DNA and RNA sample preparation kits (i.e. off-the-shelf solid-phase extraction kits (beads and/or columns) and liquid-phase extraction reagents)
• Hands-on experience with multiple NGS workflows
• Must be skilled in molecular biology laboratory workflows and techniques for both DNA and RNA analysis, including amplification, quantitation (Nanodrop, Qubit, etc), electrophoresis (quality and fragment analysis), and next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies and workflows
• Must be able to work efficiently as an individual contributor, and as a key member of a multidisciplinary team, to achieve project milestones in a fast-paced, dynamic environment

Desired Skills:

• Hands-on experience with the development of genomics applications on microfluidics-based instrumentation for the life sciences industry
• Hands-on experience with digital PCR
• Experience in developing new genomics applications workflows in a prior commercial product development role
• Hands-on experience as a technical contributor to early adopter/beta customer interactions and testing

Required Experience:

• PhD in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, or closely related fields with 2-5 years of prior product development experience in the life science tools industry