Scientist - Delivery Technologies

Title: Scientist – Delivery Technologies

Location: Durham, NC

Duration: 3 Months (potential extension or conversion)

Work Schedule: Monday–Friday, typically 8:00 AM–5:00 PM, with some flexibility

Principal Responsibilities

The Scientist, Delivery Technologies will play a central role in the optimization of transformation, gene editing, and regeneration pipelines for product crops. The Scientist will play a key role in developing and optimizing plant transformation, gene editing, and regeneration pipelines. This role is based in a state-of-the-art laboratory facility in Durham, North Carolina. Occasional travel for conferences and professional development is expected.

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• Key Competencies:Demonstrates deep expertise and hands-on experience in plant tissue culture and transformation, with the ability to spend most of the workday working at the tissue culture hood.
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• Works independently, anticipates challenges, and proactively develops solutions. Evaluates experimental results to determine which techniques and plant materials are successful and regenerable, adapting approaches accordingly.
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• Maintains strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and follow-through to ensure projects are completed and documented in a timely manner.
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• Demonstrates flexibility and a collaborative team-oriented approach, adapting to new challenges and priorities as needed.
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• Upholds the highest standards of integrity and professional responsibility.
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• Key ResponsibilitiesDevelop highly optimized gene delivery, plant tissue culture, and regeneration protocols for product crops by integrating historical research and emerging technologies across plant transformation, molecular biology, and developmental biology.
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• Contribute hands-on to daily production pipelines for transformed and gene-edited crop products.
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• Lead the management, organization, and tracking of multiple research projects simultaneously.
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• Collaborate with colleagues on the development of protocols, standard operating procedures (SOPs), quality control processes, and data archives, as well as the analysis of results and troubleshooting.
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• Provide scientific and technical guidance to Research Associates working in plant tissue culture and transformation.
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• Serve as a technical subject matter expert and effectively communicate scientific research and findings.
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• The Successful ApplicantPh.D. in Plant Biology or a related field with at least 3 years of hands-on experience in plant tissue culture and transformation, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
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• Demonstrated experience developing transformation protocols for challenging or new crop species is essential. Must be able to identify limiting parameters, develop innovative solutions, and optimize protocols to increase the number of successful transformation events produced per unit of time and effort.
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• Experience creating and implementing innovative and effective R&D concepts is essential.
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• Expertise in microscopy and imaging instrumentation is strongly preferred.
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• Expertise in protoplast delivery and regeneration, as well as gene gun delivery, is strongly preferred.
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• Experience performing molecular biology techniques, including cloning, DNA extraction, RNA extraction, and amplicon sequencing, is preferred.
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2. Position Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include:

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• Developing and optimizing plant transformation and regeneration protocols.
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• Supporting plant delivery and regeneration activities across various crop species.
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• Evaluating experimental results and identifying successful techniques and plant materials.
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• Troubleshooting experimental challenges and adapting protocols as needed.
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• Contributing hands-on to daily plant transformation and gene-editing production pipelines.
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• Managing and tracking multiple research projects.
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• Developing and maintaining laboratory protocols, SOPs, quality control processes, and research documentation.
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• Analyzing experimental results and communicating scientific findings.
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• Providing technical guidance and support to Research Associates.
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• Working collaboratively with other scientists and research team members.
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Required Qualifications / Must-Haves

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• Education:Ph.D. in Plant Biology or a related field.
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• At least 3 years of hands-on plant tissue culture and transformation experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
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• Technical Requirements:Recent, hands-on experience with plant tissue culture, plant transformation, and regeneration.
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• Demonstrated experience developing and optimizing transformation protocols.
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• Experience identifying limitations within experimental processes and developing solutions to improve results.
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• Ability to evaluate experimental outcomes and determine which techniques and plant materials are successful and regenerable.
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• Strong understanding of plant delivery and regeneration processes.
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• Ability to work independently and troubleshoot technical challenges.
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• Experience contributing to innovative research and development projects.
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Applicant Notices & Disclaimers

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• For information on benefits, equal opportunity employment, and location-specific applicant notices, click here
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At SPECTRAFORCE, we are committed to maintaining a workplace that ensures fair compensation and wage transparency in adherence with all applicable state and local laws.This position's pay range is $78.00/hr - $81.00/hr.