Senior Scientist, Biotechnology - Pathogen

Job Details

At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we're on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators to tackle humanity's greatest challenges in four transformative areas:

• Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
• Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
• Climate Change & Managing CO₂
• Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

This is ambitious work - work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you'll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs. Together, we push boundaries, embrace complexity, and create solutions to scale ideas from lab to society. Explore more at www.eit.org.

Welcome to the Pathogen Project:

Within this ecosystem, the Pathogen Mission exemplifies EIT's commitment to transformative science. It aims to revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases by leveraging whole genome sequencing (WGS)-based metagenomic and pathogen-specific analytical tools. This remit includes the development of a decentralised, sample-to-answer sequencing diagnostic platform for infectious diseases, enabling rapid and accurate analysis of patient samples without prior assumptions. Supported by Oracle Inc.'s cloud-computing scale and security infrastructure, the Pathogen Mission is progressing towards certified diagnostic products for deployment in laboratories, hospitals, and public health organisations worldwide.

Your Role:

At EIT, we're seeking an experienced and detail‑orientated Senior Scientist, Biotechnology, to contribute to the early‑stage development of a device‑based metagenomic pathogen detection platform within EIT Oxford's Pathogen Programme. This work focuses on establishing proof of concept for a modular workflow enabling infectious disease diagnosis at or near the point of care. In this laboratory‑based role, you will design and execute hypothesis‑led experiments to interrogate and iteratively refine nucleic acid extraction, purification, and manipulation workflows within a fluidic device architecture. You will apply quantitative characterisation, controlled comparisons, and mechanistic insight to drive system‑level improvements and systematically reduce technical uncertainty through disciplined, evidence‑based experimentation.

You will bring strong expertise and demonstrable experience developing nucleic acid handling or enzyme‑based systems. Experience with surface chemistry, microfluidic environments, polymer or material interfaces, or low‑input nucleic acid workflows is advantageous. You should be comfortable operating in an exploratory, data‑driven research environment, using structured experimentation, quantitative analysis, and rapid, evidence‑guided iteration to navigate ambiguity and progress early‑stage technology development.

Key Responsibilities:

• Designing and executing statistically robust, hypothesis-driven experiments with appropriate controls to isolate key variables and generate reproducible, decision-informing data.
• Applying structured experimental design approaches (e.g. factorial design, parameter sweeps, sensitivity analysis) to systematically explore design space and identify critical performance drivers.
• Investigating the physicochemical principles underlying nucleic acid adsorption, elution, surface interactions, and partitioning within device materials and reagent systems.
• Characterising enzyme-substrate interactions under non-ideal conditions, including the effects of inhibitors, ionic strength, crowding, and surface chemistry on catalytic efficiency and fidelity.
• Developing and applying quantitative analytical frameworks to define performance metrics, establish baselines, and guide iterative optimisation across workflow stages.
• Systematically identifying sources of variability and technical risk, quantifying their impact, and prioritising mitigation strategies based on experimental evidence and expected effect size.
• Translating mechanistic findings into clear design recommendations that inform workflow architecture, reagent formats, surface treatments, and fluid handling strategies during iterative prototype development.
• Working closely with engineers to align biochemical and chemical requirements with device design constraints and integration priorities.