Team Lead Fermentation Lab

Job Summary

IFF is a global leader in flavors fragrances food ingredients and health & biosciences. We deliver sustainable innovations that elevate everyday products.

Health & Biosciences: Channeling our passion for nature and bioscience into sustainable life-enhancing technologies that power innovative solutions across healthcare food consumer and industrial markets.

The role is based in Palo Alto CA (on-site). You will join a collaborative safety-focused hands-on team where technical expertise and operational excellence are highly valued.

Where Youll Make a Difference

- Oversee daily fermentation laboratory operations spending the majority of time supporting and executing work on the lab floor

- Actively participate in hands-on fermentation activities including setup monitoring sampling and troubleshooting

- Ensure safe efficient and high-quality execution of fermentation processes and experiments

- Provide day-to-day guidance and support to fermentation technicians during lab activities

- Manage administrative responsibilities including employee management scheduling and performance support

- Oversee equipment readiness usage and coordination of maintenance within the fermentation lab

- Ensure compliance with safety quality and documentation standards

- Partner with scientists and cross-functional teams to support development optimization and scale-up efforts

What Makes You the Right Fit

- Bachelors degree in biotechnology microbiology biochemistry chemical engineering or a related field

- Strong hands-on experience with fermentation or bioprocess laboratory operations - Solid understanding of fermentation workflows equipment and laboratory best practices

- Experience working in lab environments with a strong focus on safety and quality

- Ability to balance hands-on technical work with administrative responsibilities

- Strong organizational skills and attention to detail - Effective communication skills and ability to collaborate across teams

How Would You Stand Out

- Previous experience leading mentoring or coordinating laboratory technicians

- Exposure to pilot-scale or industrial fermentation environments

- Flexibility in working hours to support laboratory and operational needs when required

Why Choose Us

- Opportunity to remain deeply hands-on while developing leadership capabilities

- Collaborative and inclusive work environment

- Exposure to innovative fermentation technologies and projects

- Professional development and learning opportunities

- Competitive compensation and benefits

- Strong commitment to safety quality and sustainability

We are a global leader in taste scent and nutrition offering our customers a broader range of natural solutions and accelerating our growth strategy. At IFF we believe that your uniqueness unleashes our potential. We value the diverse mosaic of the ethnicity national origin race age sex or veteran status. We strive for an inclusive workplace that allows each of our colleagues to bring their authentic self to work regardless of their religion gender identity & expression sexual orientation or disability.

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