Research Associate II

Job Description

Job Description

About us :

Based in Berkeley, CA, UPSIDE Foods grows meat, poultry, and seafood directly from real animal cells. These products are not vegan or vegetarian—they are delicious meat, made without the need to raise and slaughter billions of animals. In doing so, the company aims to address some of the most pressing environmental, animal welfare, and public health challenges, while still giving people the meat they love.

Founded as the world's first cultivated meat company in 2015, UPSIDE Foods (formerly Memphis Meats) has achieved numerous industry-defining milestones, including being the first company to produce multiple species of meat (beef, chicken, and duck) and to sell a cultivated meat product in the United States. The company believes that people shouldn't have to choose between the foods they love and a thriving planet, and is working to build a better food system with access to delicious, humane, and sustainable meat, poultry, and seafood.

UPSIDE Foods has won various industry awards, including New York Times' Good Tech Awards, FastCo's Next Big Thing in Tech and World Changing Ideas Awards, and the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation by the National Association for Business Resources. UPSIDE Foods has raised a total of $608 million, including from the Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (ADG), Baillie Gifford, Bill Gates, Cargill, John Doerr, John Mackey, Kimbal and Christiana Musk, Norwest, Richard Branson, Softbank, Temasek, Threshold, Tyson Foods, and others.

About this job :

This Research Associate II will be responsible for helping build and execute on platforms for early-stage cell screening and characterization, and upstream process development to support cell line development efforts. This role will have a focus in continued development and implementation of our automated cell culture workflow and assist in experimentation in controlled bioreactors. The Research Associate should be capable of troubleshooting and executing experiments independently while employing critical thinking and organizational skills. This laboratory-based position requires performing experiments / assays on a daily basis, followed by data analysis and interpretation, presentation of findings to the relevant teams, and suggestion of follow-up experiments. You should be a tenacious and adaptable team player.

Responsibilities include :

• Technology Integration : Establish high-throughput and automated suspension cell culture, liquid dispensing, and imaging platforms. Serve as super-user to enable cross-functional use of established workflows.
• Cell Culture and Process Development : Perform experiments in bench-scale vessels and bioreactors, execute routine cell culture assays, and optimize processes to drive cellular attributes. Support upstream process development to prove out capabilities of cell lines. Take initiative to improve the efficiency of lab processes.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration : Partner with functional teams across R&D, Manufacturing, and Product Development to collect data across scales.
• Experimental Design : Collect, manage, and organize experimental data. Present data in internal team meetings and cross-functional program meetings. Provide input for further experiments based on data and objectives.

About you :

Who you'll work with :

Key Contributions in First Year :

Compensation Range : $75,000 - $85,000

UPSIDE Benefits!

UPSIDE Foods is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. Our company-wide mission is to create a product for everyone, so we are deeply committed to having teams and leaders that reflect this mission.