Scientist, Molecular Biology - Plant Biology Institute in Oxford

Join us at EIT: 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. Explore more at www.eit.org.

Welcome to the Plant Biology Institute: 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: The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) is seeking highly motivated and skilled Scientist (all levels) in Molecular Biology to be part of a transformative research programme at the forefront of plant biotechnology. The successful candidate will design and conduct experiments aligned with stage-gated milestones. The Scientist will be expected to contribute to publications and IP generation and play an active role in translating research into real-world and commercial solutions aligned with EIT’s mission of humane technological advancement. This role offers a unique opportunity to conduct high-impact research at the forefront of plant science while collaborating across multidisciplinary teams to drive innovation from lab to global impact. The ideal candidate will have an intrinsic motivation to translate their research into commercial solutions for real-life impact, and be a creative problem solver, ready to be part of a rapidly scaling team.

Your Responsibilities:

• Drive rigorous experimental design, execution, and data interpretations, ensuring robust and reproducible scientific outcomes.
• Deliver research progress through stage gated milestones.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to incorporate cutting edge research techniques into experiments.
• Present scientific work at seminars within EIT and at external meetings, including contributing to laboratory-wide discussions on developments within the field.
• Assist in mentoring other members of the research group where appropriate.
• Collaborate with experts across the EIT ecosystem, e.g. at the forefront of research on AI, automation, and generative biology.
• Assist in the translation of scientific results into commercial opportunities consistent with the EIT humane endeavours.
• Recognise and act on opportunities for the creation of IP and cooperating in patent protection and in impact delivery.
• Conduct research ethically, in compliance with EIT policy, regulatory guidance and best scientific practice.

Requirements

Essential Skills, Qualifications & Experience:

• PhD and > 5 years postdoctoral research experience in high-performance (ideally, plant) molecular biology labs in industry or academia.
• Extensive experience in the design, construction, and deployment of (ideally, plant) gene libraries for gene discovery, trait engineering, and functional genomics applications.
• Hands-on experience with pooled transformation, selection, screening, and deconvolution workflows in plant cells, tissues, or whole plant systems.
• Expertise in molecular cloning techniques including Golden Gate, Gateway, Gibson Assembly and modular DNA assembly systems.
• Experience applying NGS-based methods for library quality control, construct identification, barcode tracking, and pooled-screen analysis.
• Ability to design, optimise, and troubleshoot automated molecular biology workflows, including cloning, transformation, screening, and sample preparation processes.
• The aptitude to rapidly test diverse and ambitious new hypotheses while retaining the flexibility to recognize and pivot away from ideas that fail to show promise.

Desirable Skills, Qualifications & Experience:

• Extensive knowledge of Agrobacterium-mediated transformation, transient expression systems, and stable transformation approaches across plant species.
• Proven experience designing and utilising a wide range of plant expression vectors, binary vectors, and transformation constructs.
• Strong understanding of plant gene regulatory networks, transcription factor biology, promoter architecture, and plant gene expression control mechanisms.
• Demonstrated experience operating and developing workflows for laboratory automation platforms and liquid handling systems (e.g., Opentrons, Hamilton, or equivalent).
• Experience with high-throughput sample processing in multiwell plate formats.
• Experience collaborating within multidisciplinary teams spanning molecular biology, cell biology, bioinformatics, automation, and computational biology.
• Excellent experimental documentation, scientific communication, and project management skills.
• Familiarity with laboratory data management systems, electronic lab notebooks, and automated data capture workflows.

Benefits

Salary dependent on experience + travel allowance + bonus. Enhanced holiday. Our annual leave allowance is 25 days plus 8 bank holidays and an additional 3 days between Christmas and New Year. You will also have the opportunity to purchase an additional 5 days annual leave in January and July. Pension - Employer contribution 7.5%, minimum employee contribution 5%. Life Assurance. Income Protection. Private Medical Insurance as standard for you, your partner and any dependents. Including hospital Cash Plan. Employee discounts. Electric car scheme. Nursery Salary Sacrifice scheme. Cycle to Work Scheme. Family Planning. Neurodiversity support including advice and assessments. Coaching & Therapy services.