Debut
Staff Process Engineer
$120K–$150K
San Diego, CA +1 · Staff · Full-time · Posted Jul 31, 2026
- Location
- San Diego, CA
Debut - Experience
- PhD + 6 years; OR Master’s Degree + 8 years; OR Bachelors Degree + 10 years.
- Education
- PhD, Master’s Degree, or Bachelors Degree.
About the job
Leads development and scale-up of downstream purification processes for precision-fermentation products, especially small molecules used as cosmetic active ingredients.
What you'll do
- Develop and transfer downstream processes from bench through pilot and manufacturing scales, supporting scale-up and production with external partners.
- Lead technical collaboration with CDMO and CMO partners, including proposal review, site visits, equipment selection, and technology transfer.
- Guide process development and troubleshooting, track process performance, coordinate across teams, and mentor junior engineers.
What they ask for
- Expertise in downstream processing for fermentation-derived products across laboratory, pilot, and manufacturing scales.
- Demonstrated experience with downstream unit operations, including filtration, distillation, chromatography, extraction, crystallization, and drying.
- Experience authoring and executing technology transfers to CDMO or CMO partners.
- Experience evaluating and selecting CDMO or CMO partners, including RFP authorship and site audits.
Nice to have
- Familiarity with mass balance review and master batch record oversight.
- Background in microbial (bacterial and yeast) fermentation DSP processes and hydrophobic and hydrophilic target compounds.
Pay
$120,000-$150,000 USD base salary
Tools
centrifugation, filtration (dead-end and tangential flow), distillation, precipitation, adsorption chromatography (HIC, IEX), liquid/liquid extraction, crystallization, drying
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative