Cell Culture Engineer

Adaptyv is building an automated lab that lets AI agents run biology experiments.

We're entering the era of agentic science where AI models can now design novel proteins, propose hypotheses, and iterate on experimental results. But they can't run the experiments themselves - that's still a manual, months-long process. We're building the infrastructure that gives AI agents access to the physical world.

We are one of the fastest growing biotech companies, trusted by leading biopharmas, frontier AI labs, and the techbio companies pushing the field forward. This is a rare chance to help advance some of the most important work happening in biotech today.

Our automated lab is powered by a deep software + hardware stack: lab instruments worth millions of USD reverse-engineered into API-controllable hardware, dozens of devices orchestrated through complex workflows, full observability on everything that happens in the lab, processing pipelines for messy physical-world data, and AI systems that troubleshoot production results and accelerate assay development.

We’re growing rapidly and are hiring for talented people to scale and support the massive demand for AI-driven wet lab experimentation.

About the Role

We're expanding our protein expression into mammalian cell culture, for example in CHO and HEK cells. Our mammalian expression volume is growing fast. We're looking for a Cell Culture Engineer who has spent years growing and transfecting mammalian cells and knows what to do when a run goes wrong.

You'll work alongside our production and mammalian cell teams as a hands-on expert in the cell culture lab. You'll keep cultures healthy and on schedule, run transfections and expressions, and be the person the team turns to when yields drop or cells misbehave. This is a hands-on role, not a management role.

What You'll Do

• Run mammalian expression. Maintain, expand, and passage cell lines, and run transfections and expressions on a production schedule.

• Troubleshoot. When viability, growth, or yield falls off, find the cause and fix it.

• Own the cell bank. Thaw, freeze, and track cell stocks, and protect the lines from contamination and drift.

• Optimize conditions. Test culture and transfection conditions, and turn what works into the standard protocol.

• Scale with automation. Work with our automation team to move cell handling onto liquid handlers as volume grows.

• Hand off clean material. Deliver harvests ready for purification and downstream assays.

• Keep the lab running. Look after incubators, biosafety cabinets, and cell counters, and keep the BSL-2 space organized and compliant.

• Write SOPs and train. Document protocols that others can follow, and train the team on aseptic technique and our cell culture workflows.

What We're Looking For

• Extensive hands-on experience with common mammalian model cell lines, for example CHO and HEK, including transfection and expression.

• BSc / MSc in biotechnology, cell biology, or a relevant field.

• A troubleshooting track record. You've rescued failing cultures and expressions and can explain what went wrong and why.

• Flawless aseptic technique and experience working under BSL-2 conditions.

• Experience with high-throughput formats: multi-well plates and many conditions in parallel, not only flasks.

• Experience with liquid handlers is a plus.

• Experience with antibody or Fc-fusion production is a plus.

• Organized and precise. You track every stock, passage, and transfection, and you follow protocols exactly.

• You use AI tools effectively and with discernment. We use them across the company and expect you to check, edit, and stand behind what they produce, not pass along unreviewed output.

• Comfortable in a fast-paced environment where priorities shift. Cells don't keep office hours, so you plan around them.

Application deadline

We are reviewing applicants on a rolling basis.