Kinva Bio
Fermentation Scientist
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Fermentation Scientist - Kinva Bio
Location: Haverhill, Suffolk
Salary: £36,000–£42,000
Target start: October 2026
Role: Full-time, primarily laboratory-based
Kinva Bio is developing high-value bioactive ingredients using marine biotechnology and fermentation. We are building the foundations of a multi-product biomanufacturing platform spanning fermentation, engineering biology, downstream processing, and bespoke delivery systems.
We are looking for a Fermentation Scientist who wants to join at an early stage and help build our scientific capabilities from the ground up.
We are primarily recruiting at entry-to-mid level (£36–42k), but exceptional Senior Scientist candidates with strong hands-on fermentation and scale-up experience are also encouraged to apply, with compensation and scope tailored to experience.
The role
Your core focus will be hands-on fermentation science. During your first 6 months, your priorities will be establishing our new benchtop fermentation system and creating robust workflows for running, tracking, and learning from our fermentations.
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Working directly with our founding team, you will contribute to:
- Setting up, commissioning, and operating new benchtop bioreactor systems.
- Designing and running microbial fermentation experiments.
- Optimizing fermentation conditions and troubleshooting processes.
- Integrating fermentation equipment with electronic laboratory notebooks, data-storage, and analysis systems.
- Using experimental data, DoE, and emerging AI-enabled approaches to accelerate process optimization.
- Collaborating with engineering biology partners on strain improvement programmes.
- Supporting the development of downstream processing methods.
- Contributing to the incorporation of fermentation-derived bioactives into bespoke delivery systems.
- Working with external scale-up and manufacturing partners.
Fermentation is the core of the position; crossover into DSP, data, delivery systems, business development, and scientific strategy will depend on your interests and experience.
About you
We are looking for a self-starter with a can-do attitude who enjoys taking technology from 0 to 1.
You should have:
- A BSc, MSc, or PhD in microbiology, biotechnology, biochemical engineering, fermentation science, biochemistry, or a related field.
- Hands-on experience working with microorganisms.
- Strong practical laboratory and experimental design skills.
- Good data analysis and scientific record-keeping skills.
- An interest in building and improving processes rather than simply following established protocols.
- The existing right to work in the UK. Unfortunately, we cannot currently sponsor visas.
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Experience with bioreactors, bacterial fermentation, non-model microorganisms, scale-up, DoE, engineering biology, downstream processing, or fermentation data analysis would be particularly useful, but we do not expect candidates to have experience in all of these areas.
This is an opportunity to join Kinva Bio while the platform, processes, and team are still being built and to have a meaningful influence on what they become.
Apply
Read the full role description: https://kinva.bio/jobs
Apply here: https://forms.gle/2U9SoqZZuNXWxe5e9
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