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About the Role

Substrate is building the protein production cascade that turns a sequence into characterised, quality-controlled protein at scale. This role is central to developing the DNA design, molecular biology, protein expression, purification, and quality control processes that will eventually run autonomously.

Responsibilities

• Develop DNA design, molecular biology, protein expression, purification, and quality control protocols manually.
• Establish reproducibility and quality thresholds for protein production workflows.
• Validate manual assay steps before they are moved to instrumentation.
• Collaborate with automation engineering and software teams to transition manual protocols to automated execution.
• Contribute to assay menu decisions and author Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• Assist in interviewing and onboarding new scientists and lab technicians.
• Co-design protocols with software and automation engineering teams for automation readiness.
• Validate equivalence of automated assays against manual baselines.
• Triage assay failures and contribute to opening the assay menu to customers.
• Work at the boundary between scientific protocols and autonomous execution.

Requirements

• Comfortable handling DNA design and linear and plasmid DNA production at high throughput.
• Experience with protein expression and purification with QC steps for validation.
• Ability to execute protocols manually, semi-automatically, and through instrumentation.
• Core experience within biologics.
• Track record of working alongside non-scientist colleagues (automation, software, computational) on a shared workflow.
• Confident data analysis, including distinguishing instrument artefacts from genuine molecule behaviour.
• Fluency with structured experimental data capture.
• Proficiency with a LIMS, ELN, or analogous data infrastructure.
• Ready to grow into protocol authorship and SOP ownership over the first twelve months.
• Experience moving biophysical or analytical assays from manual workflows onto lab automation platforms.
• Method development and validation experience: defining acceptance criteria, references, and controls.
• SOP and protocol authorship that others have executed.
• Experience supervising at least one junior scientist or technician.
• Experience working with computational or AI/ML colleagues on closed-loop assay programmes.
• Background at an AI-native biotech or foundation-model company.

Skills

• Molecular biology
• Protein expression
• Protein purification
• Quality control
• Analytical characterisation
• DNA design
• Cell-free expression
• Mammalian expression
• Automated magnetic-bead workflows
• Biophysical methods (CE-SDS, DLS, nanoDSF/DSF, analytical SEC, HIC, LC-MS intact mass analysis)
• Data analysis
• Structured experimental data capture
• LIMS
• ELN
• Protocol authorship
• SOP development
• Lab automation
• Binding kinetics (SPR or BLI)
• Orthogonal characterisation assays
• Developability assays
• High throughput technology development
• Method validation

Location

• London

Work Type

• In-person
• Lab-based

Experience Level

• Scientist
• Senior Scientist

Education Level

• PhD in protein biochemistry, molecular or structural biology, biophysics, analytical characterisation, or biologics developability, with two or more years of relevant hands-on experience
• MSc in a relevant science with five or more years of equivalent bench experience in protein science

Benefits

• 30 days of annual leave plus public holidays
• Pension with a 10% employer contribution
• Top-tier Bupa private health cover

About the Company

• Substrate is building the critical infrastructure layer between AI and biology: an AI-native automated lab that produces biological data at scale.
• The company addresses the data problem in AI for biology, where high-quality, large-scale experimental data is lacking.
• Substrate generates data with quality and provenance built in.
• The company is not a CRO or a cloud lab.
• Founded by four co-founders and funded through a combination of equity and debt.
• The first lab is in London, with a larger automation node to follow.
• The work starts with two scientific verticals: protein characterisation and functional genomics.

Equal Opportunity

• Substrate is an equal opportunity employer.
• Hiring decisions are made on merit, scope-fit, and the strength of the working relationship.
• Applications are welcome from candidates of any background.