Microbial CDMO Careers in Europe — Fungal Fermentation, Analytical Science, and Advanced Bioactive Manufacturing

Careers at Sophia CDMO

Sophia CDMO is building one of Europe’s most distinctive microbial and advanced bioactive CDMO platforms.

We work across fungal fermentation, microbial expression, precision fermentation, cosmetic bioactives, animal health biologics, probiotics, postbiotics, recombinant proteins, enzymes, and next-generation ingredient manufacturing.

This is not ordinary contract manufacturing.

Sophia is for scientists, operators, analysts, and technical leaders who want to work close to the material reality of biotechnology: living systems, complex broths, difficult molecules, elegant analytics, serious documentation, and products that need to survive scale.

Here, science is not hidden behind corporate noise. It is felt in the vessel, the chromatogram, the batch record, the strain, the surface tension, the drying curve, the impurity profile, the stability result, and the moment a difficult programme finally becomes controlled. Sophia CDMO is hiring for three open positions.

Open Positions

1. Analytical Scientist — Biologics, Fermentation & Bioactive Characterisation
2. Fungal Fermentation Scientist — Mycelium, Enzymes & Precision Fermentation
3. Scientific Director — Advanced Bioactives, Microbial Platforms & CDMO Innovation

Why Join Sophia CDMO?

Sophia CDMO sits at the intersection of European biomanufacturing, microbial biotechnology, fungal fermentation, cosmetic science, animal health, food/feed bioactives, and advanced therapeutic development.

We are interested in people who can think technically and commercially at the same time.

The ideal Sophia team member is precise but imaginative. Serious but not stiff. Fluent in data, comfortable around ambiguity, and capable of seeing beauty in a difficult process that finally starts to behave.

Our work may involve:

• microbial fermentation
• fungal fermentation
• recombinant proteins and enzymes
• Pichia, E. coli, Bacillus, yeast, and filamentous fungi
• mycoprotein-adjacent development
• fungal bioactives and mycelium-derived products
• cosmetic peptides, postbiotics, prebiotics, and fermented cosmetic ingredients
• animal health biologics and bioactives
• analytical method development
• downstream recovery
• drying and stability strategy
• process development and tech transfer
• European GMP/GMP-like manufacturing pathways
• sponsor-facing technical strategy

Sophia is not looking for people who only want a job title.

We are looking for people who want to build a serious scientific house.

Position 1: Analytical Scientist

Biologics, Fermentation & Bioactive Characterisation

Location: Spain / Switzerland / Hybrid Europe
Work model: Hybrid preferred; remote flexibility for exceptional candidates
Salary range: €65,000–€95,000 base, depending on experience
Bonus: 10–20% performance bonus
Equity/long-term incentive: Available for high-impact hires
Travel: Occasional European site, sponsor, or technical meetings

Role Summary

Sophia CDMO is seeking an Analytical Scientist to support analytical development, characterisation, release strategy, stability testing, and technical interpretation for fermentation-derived products, recombinant proteins, enzymes, probiotics, postbiotics, cosmetic bioactives, fungal ingredients, animal health products, and advanced microbial programmes.

This role is for someone who does not treat analytics as a checkbox.

At Sophia, analytics are how a product becomes legible. The assay is not decoration. The chromatogram has a pulse. The stability result has a memory. The impurity profile tells the story the sponsor usually missed.

You will help turn complex biological and fermentation-derived materials into defined, measurable, defensible product systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Support analytical method development for fermentation-derived products, proteins, enzymes, peptides, polysaccharides, postbiotics, bioactives, and microbial products
• Review and interpret HPLC, UHPLC, LC-MS, SEC, SDS-PAGE, CE, ELISA, enzyme activity, potency, residual impurity, microbial quality, and stability data
• Help design fit-for-purpose analytical packages by product category
• Support stability studies, forced degradation studies, impurity profiling, and product characterisation
• Work with process development and fermentation teams to connect process variables with product quality
• Help define CQAs, release specifications, analytical comparability, and method-transfer needs
• Prepare technical summaries, sponsor-facing analytical memos, and development recommendations
• Support documentation aligned with GMP, GMP-like, ISO, food/feed, cosmetic, animal health, or industrial requirements
• Identify analytical gaps early before they become regulatory or commercial problems

Ideal Background

• PhD, MSc, or equivalent experience in analytical chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, pharmaceutical sciences, protein science, microbiology, or related field
• 3–8+ years in analytical development, QC, biologics, fermentation-derived products, CDMO, CRO, pharma, biotech, food biotech, cosmetic science, or industrial biotechnology
• Strong understanding of biological or fermentation-derived product characterisation
• Experience with stability-indicating methods preferred
• Familiarity with GMP, ICH, EU quality expectations, ISO systems, or regulated development environments
• Ability to communicate technical data clearly to internal teams and external sponsors

Languages

Multilingual candidates are strongly preferred.

Valuable languages include:

• English
• Spanish
• French
• German
• Italian
• Portuguese
• Dutch
• Japanese
• Korean
• Mandarin
• Arabic

Position 2: Fungal Fermentation Scientist

Mycelium, Enzymes & Precision Fermentation

Location: Spain / Switzerland / Hybrid Europe
Work model: Hybrid, with onsite fermentation work as needed
Salary range: €70,000–€110,000 base, depending on experience
Bonus: 10–25% performance bonus
Equity/long-term incentive: Available for exceptional candidates
Travel: Occasional European site and sponsor meetings

Role Summary

Sophia CDMO is hiring a Fungal Fermentation Scientist to support development and scale-up of fungal fermentation programmes across enzymes, mycelium bioactives, fungal biomass, beta-glucans, chitosan, pigments, cosmetic bioactives, food/feed ingredients, animal health products, and precision fermentation.

This role is for someone who understands that fungi are not bacteria with branches.

Fungi build architecture inside the vessel. They form hyphae, pellets, clumps, mats, networks, fibres, and viscous broths. They change oxygen transfer, shear response, downstream recovery, morphology, drying, and product quality. They are powerful, moody, productive, difficult, and commercially underused.

Sophia wants someone who can read that complexity and make it behave.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and optimise fungal fermentation processes from lab to pilot scale
• Work with filamentous fungi, yeast-like fungi, mushroom-derived systems, or fungal production hosts
• Evaluate morphology, pellet formation, dispersed growth, viscosity, oxygen transfer, shear, foaming, and scale-up behaviour
• Support development of fungal enzymes, mycelium-derived bioactives, beta-glucans, fungal chitosan, pigments, biomass products, cosmetic ingredients, and animal health/feed bioactives
• Design seed train strategies that preserve target morphology and productivity
• Support submerged and, where relevant, solid-state fermentation development
• Work with downstream teams on harvest, dewatering, concentration, drying, extraction, and stabilisation
• Assess secondary metabolite, mycotoxin-adjacent, protease, and impurity risks where relevant
• Build technical development plans for sponsor programmes
• Translate fungal biology into scalable manufacturing strategy

Ideal Background

• PhD, MSc, or strong industrial background in fermentation, mycology, microbiology, biochemical engineering, bioprocessing, fungal biotechnology, food biotech, industrial biotech, or related field
• 3–10+ years of fermentation experience
• Experience with filamentous fungi preferred: Aspergillus, Trichoderma, Fusarium, Rhizopus, Penicillium, Ganoderma, Cordyceps, mushroom mycelium, or related systems
• Strong understanding of morphology, oxygen transfer, scale-up, media development, seed trains, and downstream implications
• Experience with enzymes, mycoprotein, cosmetic bioactives, feed ingredients, animal health ingredients, or precision fermentation is valuable
• Comfortable working across technical, operational, and sponsor-facing contexts

Candidate Style

This person should enjoy complexity.

A perfect fungal fermentation scientist at Sophia can look at a thick, strange, living broth and see more than biomass. They see geometry, oxygen, stress, secretion, texture, extraction, risk, and commercial possibility.

The fungus is not passive material. It presses back. The scientist has to know when to push, when to soften, when to feed, when to shear, when to wait, and when the process is quietly telling the truth.

Position 3: Scientific Director

Advanced Bioactives, Microbial Platforms & CDMO Innovation

Location: Europe preferred; Spain / Switzerland / Hybrid / Remote for exceptional candidates
Work model: Hybrid executive-scientific role
Salary range: €120,000–€180,000 base, depending on experience
Bonus: 20–40% performance bonus
Equity/long-term incentive: Available
Travel: Expected for strategic sponsor, investor, facility, and technical meetings

Role Summary

Sophia CDMO is seeking a Scientific Director — Advanced Bioactives, Microbial Platforms & CDMO Innovation to help shape the technical direction of Sophia’s next growth phase.

This is a senior role for someone who can think across science, manufacturing, market category, sponsor strategy, and technical storytelling.

Sophia’s work crosses microbial fermentation, fungal systems, recombinant proteins, enzymes, probiotics, postbiotics, cosmetic bioactives, animal health biologics, precision fermentation, specialty ingredients, drug-device adjacent products, and emerging advanced manufacturing categories.

We need a scientific leader who can help decide not only whether a programme can be done, but how it should be framed, developed, documented, scaled, and sold technically.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead technical strategy across advanced bioactives, microbial fermentation, fungal fermentation, cosmetic biotech, animal health, and recombinant protein programmes
• Support sponsor intake, technical qualification, programme design, and CDMO routing strategy
• Build scientific frameworks for new Sophia CDMO service areas
• Help define technical positioning for emerging categories such as fungal bioactives, microbiome skincare, postbiotics, precision fermentation, animal health biologics, GLP-1-adjacent injectables, peptide products, and advanced fermentation-derived ingredients
• Oversee scientific quality of sponsor proposals, technical memos, white papers, service pages, and development plans
• Work with analytical, fermentation, downstream, quality, and business teams to shape integrated project strategies
• Identify scientific gaps, platform opportunities, and future CDMO category expansions
• Represent Sophia in high-level technical conversations with sponsors, collaborators, and strategic partners
• Help build Sophia’s scientific culture: serious, elegant, commercially aware, and technically sharp

Ideal Background

• PhD strongly preferred in biotechnology, microbiology, biochemical engineering, pharmaceutical sciences, bioprocessing, analytical science, cosmetic science, fermentation, protein science, or related discipline
• 10–20+ years in biotech, CDMO, pharma, industrial biotech, cosmetic biotech, food biotech, animal health, biologics, or fermentation-derived products
• Deep understanding of product development from early concept through scale-up, analytics, quality, regulatory pathway, and commercial manufacturing
• Strong ability to speak with CEOs, CSOs, technical founders, investors, manufacturing teams, and quality leaders
• Experience building or leading platforms, departments, technical services, or scientific strategy preferred
• Excellent written and spoken communication
• Multilingual capability strongly preferred

The Right Person

This role is for a scientist with taste.

Not academic taste alone. Manufacturing taste. Market taste. The ability to know when a programme is real, when it is noise, when a sponsor is asking the wrong question, and when an obscure technical detail is actually the whole deal.

Sophia needs someone who can move between the microscope and the boardroom without losing precision.

The Scientific Director should make the company smarter, sharper, and harder to copy.

Compensation & Benefits

Sophia CDMO offers competitive European compensation packages designed to attract serious technical talent.

Benefits may include:

• Competitive base salary
• Annual performance bonus
• Long-term incentive or equity participation for senior/high-impact hires
• Hybrid work flexibility
• Generous paid vacation
• Additional personal days
• Paid holidays
• Health insurance support
• Professional development budget
• Conference attendance support
• Scientific publication and thought-leadership support where appropriate
• Language learning support
• Relocation assistance for selected candidates
• Visa/work authorisation support where feasible
• Sponsor-facing technical leadership opportunities
• Rapid growth environment with real influence

Suggested vacation positioning:

Vacation: 25–30 paid vacation days per year, plus local public holidays, depending on jurisdiction and role.

Suggested benefit line:

Sophia is building a company where serious people can work intensely without being consumed by pointless corporate theatre. High standards, real flexibility, proper time off, and room to build.

How to Apply

Sophia CDMO is interested in the whole scientist, not only the CV.

Please send your application to info@sophiacdmo.com

Equal Opportunity Statement

Sophia CDMO welcomes qualified candidates from all backgrounds, nationalities, and cultures. We value scientific excellence, technical judgement, communication, integrity, and the ability to contribute to a serious international CDMO platform. Hiring decisions are based on role fit, experience, capability, and business needs.