Bioprocess Development - Senior Bioprocess Engineer/Scientist
Prolific Machines
Emeryville, CA, USA
Posted on Nov 8, 2025
Prolific Machines is ushering in a new era of biotechnology with light. Our mission is to make next-generation therapies broadly available to patients. Our first-of-its-kind Photomolecular Platform uses light to precisely guide how cells produce complex biologics, enabling higher titers, improved quality, and faster development timelines. By helping partners overcome today’s manufacturing bottlenecks, we’re accelerating the delivery of life-changing medicines. Prolific is supported by leading investors, including Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Mayfield, and SOSV.
Help us create a brighter tomorrow with biology. We're looking for mission-driven, talented, and kind people to join our team.
We’re looking for a dedicated bioprocess engineer or scientist with experience in CHO cell cultures to develop and optimize our antibody production processes. This role will lead the development of high titer processes for Prolific’s mammalian cell line as well as potential process and technology solutions to benefit our core technology. They will also lead the process development of specific mammalian cell lines to design, optimize, and eventually scale-up the process to production scales. The successful candidate will collaborate with multiple stakeholders across the company to deliver our processes and technology for the benefit of the strategic portfolio. This position will report into the Senior Director of Technical Operations.
Responsibilities
- Lead development of high titer processes and evaluate innovative technologies and solutions.
- Design and development of CHO cell culture process starting from clonal handoff to production scale bioreactors.
- Design and execute experiments at benchtop scale to determine optimal process parameters as well as process optimization to establish robust and scalable cell culture processes for various mammalian cell types.
- Serve as an organizational subject matter expert in CHO cell culture processes and bioreactor scale-up.
- Ensure technologies are in place to improve process efficiency and productivity. Work with the BPD team to expand capabilities and productivity.
- Collaborate with cell line development, bioprocess engineering and product development teams for the cross-functional coordination to make key decisions on tech transfers and technical support.
- Communicate with third-parties, suppliers and partners for ingredients, equipment, and novel approaches to process development and bioreactor technology.
About You
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills with clarity in communication around the tradeoffs in scope, quality, time and (human) resources.
- You come with creative, cost-effective solutions to accelerate timelines. You know when to be flexible and when to be assertive and communicate what you know is right.
- You are an effective integrator - you are a quick learner and effective facilitator and can integrate knowledge, data, and experience from others to make efficient progress.
- You are a thoughtful coworker who cares deeply about the company's mission and culture.
- You thrive in a dynamic environment and can take on the plurality of challenges that are inherent to startups.
- You foster a team environment and you actively seek impactful feedback from your colleagues.
Qualifications
- Advanced degree (MS or PhD preferred, BS acceptable with equivalent experience) with 5+ years of experience in technical development in a biopharmaceutical or similar industry.
- Extensive experience in CHO cell culture development with strong technical understanding of cell culture processes, scale-up principles, and optimization techniques.
- Experience with process development from both an early stage and late stage perspective. Experience with benchtop scales (250ml - 10L) is a must, experience with larger scales (50L - 1KL) is a plus.
- Experience with single use bioreactors is a plus.
- Strong understanding/experience in experimental design including design of experiment (DOE) and subsequent data analysis through SIMCA, JMP, or Python.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills with clarity in communication around the tradeoffs in scope, quality, time and (human) resources.
- Understanding of CHO cell biology, cell line engineering and development.
Benefits: Generous equity package in an early stage company, retirement plan with company contribution, flexible PTO with healthy time off minimums, company-covered medical, dental, and vision insurance, life and disability insurance, career coaching, mental health support, free team lunches everyday, great snacks, and companywide social events!
Diversity: We value diverse people, perspectives, and knowledge. To this end, we aim to foster a sense of belonging that enables everyone to bring their whole, authentic self to work everyday. We are committed to growing a diverse and inclusive team that encompasses all types of people. We believe this can only be achieved by acknowledging the ancestral, historic, and current systemic and communal inequities.