Chemist I-III

OMAHA, NE 

ABOUT US: We use American corn and existing bioethanol infrastructure to produce critical chemicals right here at home—powering U.S. competitiveness and securing our nation's supply chains - while reinvesting in agricultural America. Bluestem Biosciences has engineered a breakthrough in American manufacturing. Our proprietary biomanufacturing process represents a new, cost-effective, and advantaged way to produce platform chemicals domestically. With the foundation of existing infrastructure, we convert abundant, renewable American corn into high-value chemicals at scale. JOIN US AS WE ACCELERATE TO COMMERCIALIZATION

ROLE SUMMARY: We are seeking exceptional Process Chemists to join our scientific team. This role is central to our mission, and you will be driving our biorefining process to commercial scale. You will design, test, and optimize the isolation of our fermented ingredient from broth as well as its chemical conversion to final salable products. The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of chemistry, an interest in biology, and a natural curiosity to grow and evolve with the expanding business.

RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Design, build, and test at bench scale methods for isolating our fermented product and chemically converting it to salable finished products
• Characterize products and byproducts at each step, and evaluate competing processes
• Compare competing processes and make recommendations for scale up
• Support process characterization, optimization, and control to enable seamless scale-up and technology transfer
• Collaborate with process engineers to scale up processes

REQUIREMENTS: 

• Ph.D. in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, or a related field. Differing combinations of experience and education will be considered.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience and deep knowledge of various small scale laboratory techniques, and a history of working safely in a fast paced environment
• Experience with analytical methods, preferably LC-MS, GC-MS, NMR, and optical spectroscopies
• Strong communication skills and the ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced startup environment
• A self-starter mindset with the ability to lead projects, build relationships, and own the mission

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Biological downstream process development experience
• Expertise with statistical software for analyzing large datasets  (e.g., JMP, R, Minitab, etc.)
• Experience scaling processes from the bench scale to the kg scale and beyond
• Expertise in organic chemistry
• Expertise in separations modalities such as distillation and extraction

Bluestem is an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.