Ginkgo Bioworks
Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer.
Operations Engineer 2, Mammalian
About the role
Ginkgo is a high-growth, well-capitalized public biotech company in Boston that is redesigning the living world to solve some of the globe’s growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe’s growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our mission to “make biology easier to engineer” is poised to disrupt multiple industries by leveraging our innovative data, automation, and scale in biological engineering.
Please note that this position is for our Seaport location.
Responsibilities
- Coordinate with program and foundry teams to fulfill cell requests with a dedication to delivering quality work
- Execute all aspects of mammalian cell culture for both suspension and adherent cells, including media preparation, culture initiation, propagation, and cryopreservation, employing both manual and automated processes
- Serve as lead for receiving, documenting, and processing animal tissue and blood samples
- Perform assays such as cell count, viability, doubling time, light microscopy, and measurement of cell lineage markers by flow cytometry
- Independently troubleshoot problems and propose solutions related to cell culture, diagnostic/QC assay design, and execution
- Coordinate with teammates for material and task handoffs in order to deliver high-quality, trusted work
- Maintain accurate experiment and inventory records in various internal databases and software
- Establish and maintain a clean and compliant cell culture laboratory by practicing aseptic technique, adhering to equipment cleaning guidelines, and routinely testing and monitoring equipment and culture sterility
- Execute internal development projects to increase capacity and onboard new capabilities for the Mammalian Operations team
- Share rotating weekend shifts with other members of the team
Minimum Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree or higher in a relevant field and 2+ years relevant experience or equivalent performing independent cell culture post-degree in an industrial laboratory setting.
- Experience with adherent and suspension mammalian cell cultures
- Ability to multitask and think critically and creatively about multiple responsibilities
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work in a dynamic and highly collaborative environment
- Dedication to clear and accessible documentation
- Demonstrated ability to work independently
- Comfort handling mammalian tissue samples
- Ability to work one weekend day per week
Preferred Capabilities and Experience
- Experience handling cell culture in a support role for multiple projects or scientists
- Experience with primary cell processing and isolation
- Experience with Good Laboratory Practices (GLP)
- Experience with handling tissue samples
- Experience with sample accessioning
- Experience with cell sorting and/or flow cytometry
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks is the organism company. We design custom organisms for customers across multiple markets. We build our foundries to scale the process of organism engineering using software and hardware automation. Organism engineers at Ginkgo learn from nature to develop new organisms that replace technology with biology.
Engineering biology isn't easy. It is frustratingly, painfully difficult. It's programming without a debugger, manufacturing without CAD, and construction without cranes. At Ginkgo we are building a team that can build debuggers, write CAD, and operate cranes. We are looking for the best engineers, scientists, and hackers.
