Biotechnology Technical Specialist

Ref Number B04-06341 Professional Expertise Research and Research Support Department UCL BEAMS (B04) Location UCL East Working Pattern Full time Salary £35,930-£41,255 Contract Type Fixed-term Working Type On site Available for Secondment No Closing Date 10-Aug-2025

About Us

Surfactants, fragrances and polymers are key ingredients in Unilever’s household, laundry and personal care brands such as Persil, Comfort, Dove, and Sure. The EnzAct Prosperity Partnership, funded by BBSRC & EPSRC, aims to accelerate Unilever’s path to sustainability with enzymatic processes to create the next generation of surfactants, fragrances, and functional polymer ingredients for Unilever products. Currently, a significant proportion of ingredients are from fossil carbon-derived sources and Unilever has pledged to replace such ingredients as part of their ambitious sustainability goals. By harnessing enzymes, which are nature’s catalysts, EnzAct aims to re-design surfactants, polymers and fragrances using bio-based feedstocks.

About The Role

The role will focus on the technology support of enzyme processing and downstream purification. The primary objective will be to establish experimental data harvest from upstream and downstream processing at bench and large laboratory scale, speeding process development cycles through efficient data harvest. This is a multi-disciplinary project, integrating world-leading expertise in biotechnology, process development and sustainable manufacturing. This is an exciting opportunity to shape and create a cutting-edge sustainability platform, which will provide cost-effective and renewable processes to bring about resource circularity. The role will be funded for up to 18 months in the first instance.

About You

We are seeking a highly motivated biotechnology technical specialist to join the Prosperity Partnership team. You will have existing experience with speeding process development cycles through experimental data harvest from continuous enzyme, fermentation and adsorption processing. You’ll have the ability to generate, analyse and document experimental data though efficient project management and creative problem solving. An ability to collaborate within a multi-disciplinary team is essential.What we offerAs well as the exciting opportunities this role presents, we also offer some great benefits some of which are below:

• 41 Days holiday (27 days annual leave 8 bank holiday and 6 closure days)
• Additional 5 days’ annual leave purchase scheme
• Defined benefit career average revalued earnings pension scheme (CARE)
• Cycle to work scheme and season ticket loan
• Immigration loan
• Relocation scheme for certain posts
• On-Site nursery
• On-site gym
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption pay
• Employee assistance programme: Staff Support Service
• Discounted medical insurance Visit https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/rewards-and-benefits to find out more.
  

Our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce. These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women. Our department holds an Athena Swan Gold award in recognition of our commitment and demonstrable impact in advancing gender equality. You can read more about our commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/equality-diversity-inclusion/Available documentsAttached documents are available under links. Clicking a document link will initialize its download.

• download: Biotechnology Technical Specialist.docx