Associate Director, Process Development (Fermentation)

The Role

Moderna is seeking an Associate Director, Process Development to lead upstream/fermentation process development for E. coli-based production of recombinant enzymes, plasmids, and related biological starting materials critical to Moderna’s technology platforms and pipeline programs.

This role translates strain, vector, and expression‑screening outputs into robust, scalable, and manufacturable processes, with responsibility for microbial fermentation, cell banking strategy, scale‑up/scale‑down, process characterization, technology transfer, and CMC support.

The successful candidate will bring strong technical judgment in E. coli physiology and fermentation engineering and will partner closely with strain and expression screening, downstream purification, analytical development, quality, manufacturing, and CMC teams.

Here’s What You’ll Do

• Lead upstream/fermentation process development for E. coli-based production of recombinant enzymes, plasmids, and related biological materials.
• Manage a team and translate strain, vector, and screening outputs into scalable fermentation processes with clear development strategies, success criteria, and manufacturing‑readiness plans.
• Develop and optimize high‑cell‑density fed‑batch fermentation processes, including media/feed design, induction strategy, and key parameters such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, agitation, aeration, backpressure, and harvest criteria.
• Apply DOE, scale‑down models, and data‑driven approaches to define operating ranges, improve robustness, reduce variability, and improve titer, yield, productivity, and quality.
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