Research Associate in Abingdon

Are you someone who enjoys hands-on lab work and thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative research environment? We're looking for a motivated Research Associate to join our plant genotyping team, playing a key role in our molecular biology and genotyping pipelines. The ideal candidate is happy at the lab bench and equally comfortable with the computational analysis of genotyping data.

At Wild Bio we are radically enhancing crops to feed the world sustainably and promote a wilder planet. Our proprietary genetics platform harnesses wild innovations to enhance the world’s most important crops. Wild-enhanced crops would simultaneously boost farm yields and promote gigaton-scale carbon mitigation strategies. Wild Bio is a well-funded, fast-paced Oxford University spin-out working from state-of-the-art labs and offices at Milton Park, Oxfordshire.

Our work is guided by three core values that define who we are and how we approach our mission:

• Curiosity: We fuel our desire to explore the unknown, pushing the boundaries of knowledge and sparking innovation.
• Community: We believe in the strength and support gained through collaboration and inclusion.
• Courage: We face challenges head-on, take calculated risks, and stand up for our beliefs.

If these values resonate with you, we invite you to join our team of passionate scientists and innovators working at the cutting edge of bioscience.

The Role: In this position, you will be working with a team of scientists and technicians, supporting genotyping workflows across wheat, soybean, and other crops. You will work with liquid handling systems, contribute to multi-disciplinary research projects, and contribute to the processes and standards that keep our science running smoothly.

Job Responsibilities:

• Contributing to the Plant Genotyping team's mission to provide timely and accurate genotyping of plant samples.
• Preparing materials, solutions, and equipment for experiments, and performing routine tasks including sampling, plant maintenance, nucleic acid extractions and PCR.
• Running established genotyping pipelines using automation, and running command-line based analysis of genotyping and sequencing data (e.g. amplicon sequencing).
• Designing and validating primers (and probes) for new and existing genotyping assays.
• Using and helping to maintain command-line tools and analysis scripts, and contributing to pipeline improvements and automation.
• Collecting, organising, and analysing genotyping data, and maintaining accurate records in our Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) and databases for key stakeholders.
• Following and contributing to SOPs to ensure consistent, high-quality operations — and optimizing existing approaches where improvements can be made.
• Collaborating with multidisciplinary teams, assisting with troubleshooting, and contributing to presentations and team meetings.

Knowledge and skills:

• A Bachelor's degree in a relevant biological science (Master's desirable), together with hands-on experience gained afterward — whether in academia or industry.
• Strong, hands-on wet-lab molecular biology experience, particularly nucleic acid extractions and PCR.
• Experience designing primers (and ideally probes) for genotyping or other molecular assays.
• Experience running and troubleshooting analysis tools in a Linux/Unix command-line environment.
• Familiarity with bioinformatics tools — comfortable moving between the bench and computational analysis of genotyping and sequencing data.
• Be a team player in a multi-disciplinary environment, building relationships, and gaining trust from others through honesty, compassion, and authenticity.
• Have a curious and courageous mindset, enjoy stepping up to try new things in a changing environment, and taking initiative where there is often ambiguity.
• Want to seek out new opportunities to develop, share learnings with others, and strive to support others in their own development and growth.
• Proficiency with Linux, Python, and shell scripts to build or improve data analysis pipelines.
• Experience analysing gene edits (CRISPR, base editors, etc.) as part of genotyping workflows.
• Wet lab experience with high throughput sample processing, liquid handling, or PCR-based techniques (e.g. qPCR, dPCR).

Benefits:

• Group life cover x 4 of base salary.
• Critical illness cover x 4 of base salary.
• Pension scheme with a 5% Company contribution.
• Private medical insurance including dental and optical.
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave.
• Regular company socials.
• Complimentary refreshments throughout the week.
• Team meals, including breakfast on a Monday and lunch each Friday, creating opportunities for informal networking and team bonding.

Location: We’re headquartered in Milton Park, a business and technology park in Oxfordshire. This is an on-site role, though we offer flexibility and hybrid working when possible. The successful candidate will be required to provide proof of eligibility to work in the UK.