Senior Scientist, Upstream Fermentation R&D

• Company: Differential Bio
• Location: Munich, Germany (labs in Freising and Martinsried)
• Employment type: Full time, on-site
• Department: Research & Development

About Differential Bio

Differential Bio is pioneering the future of biotechnology through lab automation, AI and digital modelling. As a digital biology challenger, we optimise end-to-end fermentation performance through media and bioprocess improvements, from probiotics to specialty chemicals. Our Virtual Scale-up Platform is transforming traditional lab work, enabling more sustainable and economically viable bio-based production.

Role summary

We’re hiring a Senior Scientist, Upstream Fermentation R&D in Munich to build out Differential’s wet lab capabilities and help deliver customer projects in domains ranging from probiotics to specialty chemicals.

You will drive delivery across a growing pipeline of customer projects end-to-end, from scoping research and project plans to hands-on assay development and microbiology work, while managing time, budget and quality.

In close collaboration with lab automation and bioinformatics, you’ll define scalable, model-ready workflows and develop the methods, instrumentation and tools that make them reliable in production. You will design and run media and cultivation experiments, develop assays, and generate AI-ready datasets to drive data-driven optimisation across a range of industrially relevant microbes and applications.

You’ll work closely with our existing microbiology team, help scale it further, and coach junior team members on experimental execution, documentation standards and reproducibility. You share our vision and actively evangelise data-, AI- and robotics-driven media and bioprocess optimisation as the engine of the bioeconomy’s future.

If this is you, apply and tell us how you’ll put it into practice.

Key responsibilities

• Lead cultivation and study of a broad range of microbial species, from our current focus on lactic acid bacteria to industry workhorses such as E. coli, P. pastoris and B. subtilis, including strains with challenging traits.
• Develop media to enhance productivity and stability at lab scale, with the potential (not required) to extend into bioprocess development (e.g. feeding strategies, temperature, pH) at lab and production scale.
• Design, validate and standardise assays that inform media and bioprocess choices and support strain characterisation, functional testing and QC.
• Translate customer requirements into lean, milestone-driven scientific research plans that optimise speed, cost and decision quality in a resource-conscious startup environment.
• Collaborate with lab automation and data science teams to design scalable, model-ready data capture for fermentation parameters and metabolite panels.
• Lead and develop junior scientists and technicians to execute experiments precisely and maintain rigorous documentation, enforcing SOP/QA standards.

Qualifications

• PhD (or equivalent work experience) in Microbiology or a related field.
• 3+ years in industrial or translational research in microbial fermentation (probiotics, (agri)food or cosmetics preferred).
• Proven ownership and hands-on experience in cultivation and media development across lactic acid bacteria, B. subtilis, E. coli and yeasts in an industrial/bioprocess setting; exposure to challenging traits (fastidious, anaerobic) is a plus. Strong depth in at least one is sufficient.
• An assay developer at heart, with demonstrated design and validation of microbiology assays.
• Demonstrated ownership and hands-on execution in a fast-paced, resource-constrained research environment, with proven judgement on time/budget trade-offs (build vs. buy, lab infrastructure, lean experimentation).
• Excellent written and verbal communication in English – clear stakeholder updates, customer presentations and concise technical writing.
• Regular, in-person presence at our Freising campus or downtown Munich lab.

Nice to have

• Hands-on experience with benchtop bioreactors; a huge plus if you have demonstrated scale-up experience from lab to production scale.
• Experience with obligate anaerobes and other challenging strains, e.g. fastidious, flocculent, agglutinating or sporulating strains, and nutritionally demanding or slow-growing microbes.
• Proven cross-functional project management across wet lab and automation, bioinformatics and bioprocess workstreams.
• Experience with Python, R or Matlab for DoE, growth/fermentation analytics, modelling-ready datasets and light scripting; able to read/write instrument CSV/API and LIMS fields.
• A demonstrated builder mindset, with experience shipping in a startup or through internal research projects; comfortable with ambiguity and end-to-end ownership.

Benefits

• High autonomy to steer scientific development, deliver ambitiously and help build a high-performing team – be a cornerstone hire.
• State-of-the-art labs in Freising and Munich (Martinsried), plus a central Munich office close to the Central Station.
• Competitive salary and meaningful stock options.
• eGym WellPass membership.