We are looking for a curious, technically strong Process Development Scientist to join our R&D team — someone who novel solutions to unique process challenges and is driven to make complex systems work better, more reliably, and at greater scale.
As a Process Development Scientist, you will sit within Meatly's process development function in R&D, working directly under the Process Development Lead to investigate, develop, and improve the cell culture processes at the heart of our cultivated meat production. As process development scientist, your focus will primarily be on experimentation to understand how our cells behave under different process conditions, media composition and feeding strategies, or can stretch to prototyping systems to implement novel technologies, programming microcontrollers and implementing new bioprocess control techniques,
You will design and execute cell culture experiments with rigour and creativity, interpret results in the context of both the science and the scale-up ambition, and communicate your findings clearly to the broader team. You will work closely with colleagues across media development and the process engineering team, to ensure that solutions at R&D are well-integrated at scale.
Key Responsibilities
Cell Culture Process Development
- Design and execute cell culture experiments to develop, optimise, and characterise cultivated meat production processes, with a focus on the biological drivers of process performance
- Investigate the effects of media composition, feeding strategies, and environmental parameters on cell growth, viability, metabolism, and product quality
- Develop and test seeding strategies, passage protocols, and inoculation procedures to improve process consistency and reproducibility
- Support the development of perfusion and fed-batch culture strategies, contributing biological insight to process design decisions led by the Process Development Lead
Assay Development & Analytics
- Develop, optimise, and execute cell-based assays to characterise culture performance, including proliferation assays, viability measurements, and metabolic profiling
- Perform offline analytical measurements routinely, including cell count and viability, glucose and lactate, osmolality, and additional metabolites as required
- Support the evaluation and implementation of new analytical tools and technologies that could strengthen the team's process understanding
Scale-Up Support
- Conduct small-scale model experiments to generate data that informs bioreactor process development
- Support the team in identifying critical quality attributes (CQAs) and understanding how biological variability affects process robustness at scale
- Assist with the biological characterisation of process outputs at different scales to build confidence in scale-up decisions
Person Specification
- Degree in cell biology, biochemistry, bioprocess science, biotechnology, or a closely related discipline;MSc, or equivalent industry experience
- Practical experience in mammalian cell culture, with a clear understanding of the biological factors that influence cell growth, viability, and metabolism
- Experience designing and executing hypothesis-driven cell culture experiments, with the ability to interpret results critically and draw well-reasoned conclusions
- Familiarity with common cell culture analytics including viability assays, metabolite measurement, and cell counting
- Experience developing or optimising cell culture media, feed strategies, or process conditions
- Good quantitative skills — comfortable working with experimental datasets, applying statistics, and using tools such as Python, R, or Excel for analysis
- Strong written communication skills — able to write clear experimental reports and contribute to SOPs and technical documents
- A collaborative, curious, and methodical approach to scientific problem-solving
- Experience in cultivated meat, cell-based food production, scaffolding biology, or the broader alternative protein sector
- Hands‑on experience working with bioreactor systems, even at small scale
- Familiarity with design of experiments (DoE) approaches and their application to cell culture optimisation
- Experience with flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, or other phenotypic characterisation methods
- Knowledge of cell line development or cell banking procedures
- Exposure to regulatory or quality documentation in a semi‑regulated or regulated research environment
- Familiarity with UK novel food regulatory frameworks (FSA/FSS) or equivalent
- Experience in an early‑stage biotech company or translational research environment
What We Offer
- £30-45k salary commensurate with experience + up to 20% bonus depending on performance
- Equity participation in a high‑growth, mission‑driven company
- 32 days’ holiday a year, including bank holidays. Use holiday to take bank holidays off or work them and use the days at another time; it’s up to you
- Pension and private healthcare
- Learning & development budget, including support for relevant training, courses, and conferences
- Mentorship and career development within a growing, world‑class R&D team
- Access to well‑equipped laboratory and bioprocessing facilities
- The opportunity to do scientifically meaningful work on processes that are genuinely novel — and that will help define how cultivated meat is made at scale
Meatly is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive team and welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds.
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