Crop Transformation Pipeline Manager - Plant Biology Institute in Oxford

Welcome to the Plant Biology Institute: At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we’re on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators to tackle humanity’s greatest challenges in four transformative areas: Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology, Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture, Climate Change & Managing CO², Artificial Intelligence & Robotics.

This is ambitious work - work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you’ll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs. Together, we push boundaries, embrace complexity, and create solutions to scale ideas from lab to society.

The Plant Biology Institute, headed by Professor Steve Kelly, is a key part of the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) Oxford. The institute aims to develop impactful and commercially sustainable solutions for improving global food production and planetary health through pioneering plant science research. The Plant Biology Institute will unite world-class researchers who are focused on expanding the frontiers of plant science. Our research is focused on enhancing our ability to feed the planet while simultaneously improving the climate and ecosystem outcomes of food production.

By embedding cutting-edge plant science research within an organisation that is focused on solving global challenges at scale, we aim to accelerate the timeline from discovery to global impact. Areas of exploration include:

• Improved plant productivity, both indoors and outside.
• Reduced reliance on inputs including water, fertilisers, pesticides, and herbicides.
• Novel decarbonised plant-based production platforms for food and medicines.
• Advanced technologies that speed up discovery and deployment in plants.

Researchers will have access to state-of-the-art laboratory and plant growth facilities and have opportunities to collaborate with experts at the forefront of research on AI, automation, and generative biology across the EIT ecosystem. They will also work with global leaders in market development, commercialisation, and impact creation. The Plant Biology Institute has long-term substantial funding to support the unique scale and ambition of its vision.

Your Role: At EIT we are seeking a highly motivated and skilled Crop Transformation Pipeline Manager at the pioneering Plant Biology Institute. The candidate will build and scale a high-throughput Plant Transformation Pipeline focused on reliable, genotype-flexible, and industrially scalable delivery of transgenic and gene-edited plants. This role will establish and optimise transformation workflows, drive throughput improvements, and ensure reproducibility across multiple crop systems. The successful candidate will lead a technical team and develop robust, data-driven platforms that enable rapid construct-to-plant turnaround and downstream trait validation.

Your Responsibilities: You will play a pivotal role in advancing the institute’s research program. Successful candidates will focus on developing high throughput transient assays & stable transformation systems for different crops and explants using visual and fluorescent reporters, different selection markers, validate test & trait constructs from various programs at the institute. The key responsibilities include:

• Establish high-throughput transformation pipelines with defined KPIs (efficiency, regeneration rate, cycle time, no. of quality events).
• Design, implement, and optimise end-to-end plant transformation workflows (Agrobacterium-mediated, biolistic, CRISPR delivery, etc.).
• Lead and mentor Research Associates and Senior Research Associates.
• Standardise tissue culture, regeneration, and selection protocols across genotypes.
• Integrate automation, digital tracking, and quality control systems in the pipeline.
• Collaborate closely with other research groups to implement technologies to boost pipeline efficiency.
• Drive continuous improvement, process optimisation, and scalability.
• Contribute to strategic planning for the pipeline initiatives.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to incorporate cutting edge research techniques into experiments.
• Present scientific work at seminars within the lab and at external meetings, including contributing to laboratory-wide discussions on developments within the field.
• Assist in mentoring graduate students and other members of the research group where appropriate.
• Collaborate with experts at the forefront of research on AI, automation, and generative biology across the EIT ecosystem.
• Assist in the translation of scientific results into commercial opportunities consistent with the EIT humane endeavors.
• Recognise the acting on opportunities for the creation of IP and cooperating in patent protection and in impact delivery.

The successful candidate will have a strong background in large-scale crop transformation in an industrial or academic setting. This role offers a unique opportunity to run a high-throughput pipeline while collaborating across multidisciplinary teams to drive innovation from lab to global impact. The candidate will be expected to play an active role in translating research into commercially applicable tools to advance trait programs and delivering commercial solutions aligned with EIT’s mission of humane technological advancement. This is an exciting opportunity to develop as a leader in a dynamic, well-supported, and purpose-driven environment.

Requirements Essential Skills, Qualifications & Experience:

• Master’s or PhD in Plant Biology, Plant Biotechnology, or related field.
• Extensive hands‑on experience developing high‑throughput plant transformation and tissue‑culture systems across multiple crop species.
• Demonstrated experience improving transformation efficiency and regeneration outcomes in elite lines.
• Experience leading technical teams or managing complex workflows.
• Strong understanding of genome editing platforms (CRISPR/Cas systems).
• Experience in planning and management tools like spreadsheets, Microsoft planner, LIMS, ELN, or confluence.
• To understand (or have a desire to understand) the path to impact for the research area in question and where appropriate to consider user feedback and market research in designing research experiments.
• Ability to build both internal and external relationships.
• Working collaboratively with others outside of their discipline.
• Clear and demonstratable problem-solving skills.
• Excellent problem‑solving, communication, and collaboration skills.
• Excellent written communication and report writing skills.

Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• Experience working in industrial or high-throughput R&D settings.
• Experience across multiple crop species.
• Familiarity with phenotyping, digital data capture, or automation integration.

Benefits Our Benefits:

• Salary dependent on experience + travel allowance + bonus.
• Enhanced holiday + options to buy additional days.
• Pension.
• Life Assurance.
• Income Protection.
• Private Medical Insurance.
• Hospital Cash Plan.
• Therapy Services.
• Perk Box.
• Electric Car Scheme.
• Childcare benefit.

What we offer:

• Newly constructed, state-of-the-art laboratories and growth facilities.
• A collaborative research environment with highly skilled team working at the cutting edge of plant science to create commercially sustainable solutions that tackle humanity’s biggest challenges, including enabling sustainable agriculture and improving the climate and ecosystem outcomes of food production.
• Opportunities for professional development include publication, conferences, spin-out generation, and leadership development.