Lab & Fermentation Technician

Full‑time role, starting as soon as possible and running through April 2027. Based between our lab in the East Bay and our production facility in Stanislaus County, California. About GillyGilly makes a fungal feed additive for dairy cattle. It helps cows digest fiber more completely, so farmers get more out of the feed they already buy. We're a small early‑stage company backed by investors and grants. We have a lab in the East Bay and a production facility in Stanislaus County. The roleOur first in‑cow feeding trial runs from January through April 2027 at a university dairy, and we make the product for it ourselves. This job is that production work and the lab work behind it.It's a full‑time position starting as soon as possible, initially through April 2027. For the right person, we'd like it to turn into a longer‑term role with more responsibility and compensation to match. The near‑term work is hands‑on production. From there, there's room to grow in whatever direction fits your strengths.We're looking for someone at the level of a recent BS or BA, or a few years out of school, though we're happy to hear from people further along. The job centers on hands‑on work, and ideas about how we do things are always welcome. You'd work directly with Bo, our CEO, who is a biologist and will be in the lab and at the facility with you. What you'd do - Maintain our fungal cultures: media prep and autoclaving, plates, slants, shake flasks, stocks and transfers, using good aseptic technique.

• Prepare inoculum and substrate for production runs, including spore counts.
• Set up, monitor and harvest solid‑state fermentation runs at our Stanislaus County facility.
• Run contamination checks on fermentation samples, including plating and DNA‑based identification.
• Dry, mill and package finished material, and pull and ship QC samples to outside labs.
• Keep batch records, including what was run and anything that deviated.
• Help troubleshoot runs that don't go as planned.

What we need - A degree or certificate in microbiology, molecular biology, biology, biotechnology, bioprocess engineering or a related field, or equivalent hands‑on experience.

• Wet‑lab experience culturing microbes. You should be comfortable pouring plates, doing transfers and working sterile without much supervision. Experience with bacteria or yeast is fine; filamentous fungi is a plus.
• A basic understanding of how microbes grow and what makes a culture fail.
• Willingness to do physical work in a warehouse, including lifting, moving substrate, dust, heat, and PPE such as a fitted respirator.
• A reliable vehicle and a valid license. This job is on‑site: our lab is in the East Bay and the production facility is in Stanislaus County, about 90 minutes apart. You'll need to be living somewhere between the two by your start date. We reimburse mileage and pay for driving time between sites.
• A schedule that can flex around fermentation runs. Some days start early or run long and others are short. The overall workload is normal for a full‑time job, about 40 hours a week, and long days are balanced by lighter ones. We don't expect nights and weekends as a routine.
• Attention to detail, since a contaminated run can set the schedule back by weeks.

Nice to have - Axenic culture of filamentous fungi (Neurospora, Aspergillus, Trichoderma, Penicillium or similar).

• Fermentation experience, solid‑state or submerged.
• Basic molecular biology, such as DNA extraction and PCR.
• Food, feed or ag industry experience.
• Comfort using AI tools to write code and design experiments or protocols. It isn't a coding‑heavy job, but these skills get more useful as the company grows.

Conditions - Pay: $60,000–70,000 a year depending on experience, prorated for the length of the role, with overtime pay.

• Safety: some of this work generates dust. We provide respirators, PPE and training, and we expect them to be used.
• Benefits: paid sick leave. This role doesn't include health insurance.
• Work authorization: you must be authorized to work in the US. We can't sponsor visas.

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