Director, Technology Development

Biosphere • Oakland, CA

3d • $200,000 - $250,000

About The Position

Biosphere is hiring a Director, Technology Development to lead R&D priorities and deliver technologies on a roadmap for integration into its demonstration plant. The role owns day-to-day research and development priorities, experimental decisions, and delivery within agreed budgets. As work progresses, the director will take increasing ownership of high-risk, high-reward technical work, guided by commercial priorities and commitments.

This is a management role leading a small, multidisciplinary R&D team. The director will set priorities, coach team members, review data, and hire as needed, while remaining hands-on. The role will collaborate closely with the Principal Engineer and capital projects team to develop and validate assigned technologies and agree on requirements, acceptance criteria, and handoff into plant design and commissioning.

The director will manage a portfolio of R&D efforts, including funded research projects, and advance new reactor technologies and subsystems from proof of concept to validated designs. The work includes pilot-scale reactors, next-generation reactor prototypes, and validated designs and specifications for a 20,000-liter line, as well as supporting installation and commissioning. The director will use rigorous experimental design, statistics, process engineering, and techno-economic analysis to make evidence-backed development decisions.

Requirements

• Experience leading a complex, multidisciplinary technical team developing and scaling new process technology in biotech, chemicals, materials, energy, water, or another process industry.
• Process engineering experience covering mass and energy balances, unit operations, heat and mass transfer, scale-up, and techno-economic analysis.
• Fluency in experimental design and applied statistics, including designed experiments, hypothesis testing, sample size and power, and reliability or rare-event analysis.
• Ability to write and present clearly to engineers and funders.

Nice To Haves

• Bioreactor or fermentation equipment development, pilot-scale reactor design, and scale-up.
• Cleaning and sterilization experience, including CIP, SIP, and sterility validation, and hygienic design knowledge such as ASME BPE or EHEDG.
• Experience with first-of-a-kind process plants or capital projects.
• Experience with government-funded R&D programs.
• Instrumentation and controls experience.
• An advanced degree is helpful but not required.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow the R&D team by setting priorities, coaching, reviewing data, and hiring as needed.
• Execute roadmap milestones by advancing reactor technologies and subsystems from proof of concept to validated designs, including pilot-scale reactors and next-generation reactor prototypes for government-funded programs.
• Deliver validated designs and specifications for the 20,000-liter line and support its installation and commissioning.
• Lead assigned funded research projects through delivery and technical reporting in collaboration with project managers; contribute to proposals when the work fits Biosphere’s priorities and capacity.
• Make process and techno-economic decisions.
• Set standards for experimental design and statistics, including determining what each test must demonstrate, the number of runs required, and how results should be analyzed, including rare events such as contamination.
• Build tools for tracking experiments and characterizing failures.
• Manage the R&D portfolio by assigning program owners, budgets, milestones, and next decisions; ranking work by value, remaining cost, and delivery risk; stopping discretionary work that no longer justifies its cost; and escalating changes to contractual commitments.
• Agree on a delivery plan for the R&D portfolio with the Biosphere management team, including priorities, owners, milestone dates, acceptance criteria, and dependencies with the plant team.
• Bring evidence-backed recommendations to leadership on strategy, major spending, new commitments, and future development priorities.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation through a mix of salary and equity.
• Unlimited paid vacation and sick/leave days, plus public holidays.
• Comprehensive health insurance for employees and their dependents, including dental and vision.
• Paid family leave.
• Membership at the Pacific Pipe Climbing gym next door.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed