Own half of the process that decides the cost.

Most of what a fermentation-derived protein costs is decided after the fermenter. Clarification, membranes, capture, polish, concentration, drying. Every step costs you product. All of it comes down to one number: cost per kilo.

You will own that half.

This is not a role where you hand a protocol to someone else and hope. We run our own plant near Bhopal. You design the process, and we build it, run it at scale, and measure it. Your numbers come back to you from a real factory within months, not years.

What you will do

- Lead downstream process development for fermentation-derived food proteins, from first principles to a process that holds at commercial scale.
- Design purification strategy across clarification, cell removal, capture, polishing, concentration, and drying. Chromatographic and non-chromatographic both.
- Own process economics. Treat yield, recovery, purity, throughput, and cost of goods as one problem, not four.
- Translate lab workflows into pilot and plant processes, and own the transfer rather than handing it over.
- Set process control strategy and critical quality attributes for food-grade protein.
- Build mass balances, process models, and techno-economic assessments that survive scrutiny.
- Build and mentor the downstream team.

What you need

- A PhD with 10+ years, or an MSc with 15+ years, in biochemical engineering, biotechnology, chemical engineering,



or a related field.
- Deep hands-on experience purifying proteins from microbial fermentation.
- Chromatography (affinity, ion exchange, HIC, SEC) and membranes (TFF, UF, DF, microfiltration).
- A scale-up you personally took from lab to pilot or commercial production that actually ran.
- Fluency with mass balance, process modeling, and cost of goods.

Nice to have

- Food or enzyme industry experience. Food-grade constraints are tighter and cheaper than pharma.
- Yeast or fungal expression systems.
- GRAS, HACCP, FSSAI or EFSA exposure.
- Experience building a team rather than joining one.

What we will pay

Best in the industry, for the person who deserves it.

If you are the right person, money will not be the reason this does not work.

About StrainX Bioworks

We are a deep tech company. We design microbes that produce proteins that today come from animals and plants, and we manufacture them ourselves. Our research center is in Bengaluru. Our factory is at Tamot near Bhopal, and it is already running. More than 100 people across both.

Most companies in this field stop at the science. We went and built the factory.

How to apply

Apply here, or write to [email protected] with the subject line “Principal Scientist, DSP”.

StrainX Bioworks is an equal chance employer. We hire on evidence of capability, and nothing else.

📌 Principal Scientist, Downstream Processing (Bengaluru)
🏢 StrainX Bioworks
📍 Bengaluru