Bioreactor Operations Technician

Airtree is advertising this role on behalf of one of our portfolio companies, who are currently in stealth mode. We exist to make biologics radically cheaper, so modern medicine reaches the people and animals today's industry prices out. Discovery got cheap; manufacturing didn't, and the cost of making antibodies is now what keeps them from patients. That's the constraint we exist to break.We're building factories that deliver a 20-50x cost reduction at scale: more than 10 tonnes of drug substance a year, under $10 a gram. A foundry — a standardised platform that molecules adapt to — not a contract manufacturer running a bespoke process per client.Our founders previously built and scaled a biomanufacturing company where they industrialised mammalian cell culture, growing it to run a 22,000 L production line. We're building this company on the same engineering discipline.We're hiring an experienced operator to assemble, sterilise and run a fleet of 16 bench top bioreactors — twelve 300 mL vessels and four 3 L vessels — safely, aseptically and on schedule.Why this role exists This is an execution-first role, not an experimental-design role. Our scientists define the question, set the run parameters and interpret the data; you make those plans happen reliably. The job is to make a large reactor fleet feel routine through flawless preparation, clean technique, repeatable operation and complete records — and to solve normal equipment and controls problems without pulling a senior scientist away from their work.
The Role
Operating the full 16-reactor fleet: twelve 300 mL and four 3 L mammalian-cell-culture bioreactors, often in parallel and on shared run schedulesAssembling vessels, tubing, probes, spargers and single-use components; leak-checking assemblies and staging everything required for each runCleaning, sterilising or autoclaving, reassembling and turning vessels around to a defined daily rhythm so the next run starts on timeExecuting approved run plans exactly: inoculation, media and feed additions, set-point changes, sampling, harvest and sample hand-offCalibrating and maintaining pH, dissolved oxygen and temperature probes, and checking gas, agitation, pump and alarm functions before useTroubleshooting controls and cascade behaviour independently — including DO, gas-mix, agitation, pump and sensor issues — and knowing when a problem genuinely needs escalationProtecting the sterile boundary throughout every run; recognising contamination early and leading the immediate isolation, clean-down and recovery responseProcessing and labelling samples consistently, maintaining chain of custody and ensuring scientists can trust the resulting dataCompleting electronic records, run logs, deviations and equipment checks in real time, and keeping consumables and work areas inspection-ready

Requirements

EssentialAt least three years of hands-on industry experience operating mammalian cell-culture bioreactors. Academic-only experience is not sufficient for this roleDemonstrated experience assembling, sterilising, inoculating, sampling, feeding, harvesting and turning around benchtop bioreactorsWorking knowledge of bioreactor controls and cascades. You can diagnose common probe, gas, agitation, pump and alarm problems without waiting for a scientist to fix themExcellent aseptic technique and a practical understanding of contamination prevention, detection and responseStrong operational discipline: you prepare ahead, follow approved procedures, document as you go and raise exceptions earlyAble to work a consistent full-time schedule that includes at least one weekend day — for example Sunday to Thursday or Tuesday to SaturdayThe right to work in Australia and the ability to work on site in Alexandria, Sydney
Nice to haveExperience with parallel bioreactor systems or multi-vessel operations at approximately 250 mL to 5 L scaleCHO cell culture, antibody production or other industrial mammalian-cell-culture experienceExperience in a GMP, GLP or similarly controlled environment, including electronic batch records, ELNs or LIMSHands-on equipment maintenance or process-control experience beyond routine operation
How We Work Small team, fast cycles, flat. This is an on-site role in Alexandria, Sydney, with a consistent schedule that includes four weekdays and one weekend day. You will work from run plans designed by our scientists and alongside the people responsible for lab operations, media preparation and analytics. We value high standards, direct communication and people who fix the system rather than work around the same problem twice.Compensation AUD $85,000-$100,000 base salary, plus superannuation and early-stage equity. The final package will reflect the depth of your hands-on bioreactor and controls experience.