Development Scientist

Oxford Nanopore Technologies is headquartered at the Oxford Science Park outside Oxford, UK, with satellite offices and a commercial presence in many global locations across the US, APAC and Europe. The company’s goal is to bring the widest benefits to society through enabling the analysis of anything, by anyone, anywhere.

Oxford Nanopore has developed a new generation of nanopore-based sensing technology, enabling the real-time, high-performance, accessible and scalable analysis of DNA and RNA. The technology is used in more than 100 countries to understand the biology of humans and diseases, plants, animals, bacteria, viruses, and whole environments. Oxford Nanopore’s sequencing platform is the only technology that offers real-time analysis in fully scalable formats, from pocket to population-scale, and the only one that can sequence native DNA or RNA samples, with no restriction on read length.

Our Sample Technology team is responsible for the specification, development and performance of the company’s suite of nucleic acid sample preparation kits, and the development of end-to-end sample-to-answer workflows, all intimately associated with our sequencing platforms (e.g. MinION/GridION and PromethION).

We are seeking a highly motivated and detail-oriented individual with relevant lab-based skills to join the team as a Development Scientist. The role is based at our Oxford headquarters and involves laboratory-based development, characterisation, troubleshooting and performance improvement across DNA and RNA sample-preparation workflows.

Formally reporting to the Sequencing Kit Development Associate Director, the successful candidate will work across multiple projects and be responsible for helping to deliver continuous improvement to the sample preparation kits, focussing on characterising, troubleshooting, and improving the performance of the biomolecular components contained within. In a highly collaborative role, you will work with various stakeholders, from the Research division through to Production.

Knowledge of chromatography method development.

Experience with assay optimisation, oligonucleotide design, library preparation, ONT platforms or other NGS technologies.

Ability to analyse and visualise experimental data using Python, R, command-line tools or equivalent methods.

Oxford Nanopore Technologies: Our goal is to bring the widest benefits to society through enabling the analysis of anything, by anyone, anywhere. The company has developed a new generation of nanopore-based sensing technology for faster, information rich, accessible and affordable molecular analysis. The first application is DNA/RNA sequencing, and the technology is in development for the analysis of other types of molecules including proteins. The technology is used to understand and characterise the biology of humans and diseases such as cancer, plants, animals, bacteria, viruses, and whole environments. With a thriving culture of ambition and strong innovation goals, Oxford Nanopore is a UK headquartered company with global operations and customers in more than 125 countries.