Scientist, Applied Cell Line Development & Customer Programs

Prolific Machines•Emeryville, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Prolific Machines is seeking an experienced Scientist to lead external customer projects focused on mammalian cell line development for biomanufacturing. The company’s optogenetic platform uses light to control cellular activity and offers new opportunities to improve recombinant protein production. The role translates platform capabilities and advances into robust customer workflows and reliable project outcomes. Working closely with the department head responsible for customer delivery, the Scientist owns the technical approach, day-to-day execution, and high-level oversight of assigned projects. The role provides priorities, experimental guidance, and professional development support to research associates and junior scientists. In partnership with project managers and cross-functional teams, the Scientist keeps projects on track, addresses execution challenges, and communicates results, risks, and recommendations to internal and external stakeholders. The role also helps establish repeatable customer-delivery practices as offerings expand, including workflows, templates, execution standards, data packages, and handoff standards. The position is based on-site at Prolific Machines’ headquarters in Emeryville, California.

Requirements

Ph.D. in Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, or a related field, plus 2–5 years of industry experience or 7 or more years of relevant research experience to qualify for Scientist II.
Hands-on experience in mammalian cell line development, or demonstrated experience across molecular cloning, mammalian cell engineering, and recombinant protein production workflows.
Demonstrated experience leading technical projects in an industry setting, including experimental design, execution planning, data interpretation, and delivery against milestones.
Experience working closely with or directly managing junior scientists or research associates in industry, including setting priorities, guiding execution, and providing feedback.
Ability to organize and track project data and synthesize complex technical work into clear, concise presentations and written updates that support decisions.
Strong organizational skills and experience coordinating cross-functional work, managing dependencies, and adapting plans as results and priorities evolve.
Ability to take responsibility for both scientific work and the coordination needed to deliver it.
Clear, concise communication skills, with the ability to tailor technical detail to the audience and make data-grounded recommendations.
Ability to build productive cross-disciplinary relationships and surface challenges early.
Interest in coaching junior colleagues and improving team operations.
Comfort working in a fast-paced startup environment with evolving project scopes and shifting priorities.

Nice To Haves

Customer-facing scientific communication or external collaboration experience; prior ownership of external communication is welcome but not required.
CHO cell line development for biologics production, including stable expression, screening, and clone selection.
Cell engineering and characterization methods such as transposon or targeted integration approaches, flow cytometry, fluorescence assays, and ddPCR.
Experience developing standardized workflows or transferring methods and capabilities from R&D into routine project execution.

Responsibilities

Translate customer objectives into experimental strategies, work plans, and decision points in partnership with program leads.
Set technical direction with leadership input, interpret results, and recommend next steps.
Execute experiments involving stable cell line generation, protein production runs, and analytical methods such as FACS and ddPCR; analyze experimental results.
Set expectations for junior colleagues, review experimental plans and data, and provide research associates with coaching and feedback.
Coordinate project activities, resources, dependencies, and timelines with project managers.
Identify project risks early, propose solutions, and escalate decisions with clear recommendations.
Establish and maintain project data tracking, consolidate results across contributors, and prepare slides for internal reviews and external partner updates.
Communicate findings in concise messages connecting results to project objectives, partner questions, risks, and recommended next steps.
Contribute to customer discussions and presentations.
Coordinate with R&D, platform development, bioprocessing, analytical, hardware, and data teams, alongside project managers, to maintain alignment across project phases.
Develop workflows, templates, data packages, and handoff standards that support consistent customer project execution.