Genotyping and Event Delivery Manager - Plant Biology Institute

Join us at EIT:

At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we’re on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators to tackle humanity’s greatest challenges in four transformative areas:

• Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
• Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
• Climate Change & Managing CO₂
• Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

This is ambitious work - work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you’ll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs. Together, we push boundaries, embrace complexity, and create solutions to scale ideas from lab to society. Explore more at www.eit.org.

Welcome to the Plant Biology Institute:

The Plant Biology Institute, headed by Professor Steve Kelly, is a key part of the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) Oxford. The institute aims to develop impactful and commercially sustainable solutions for improving global food production and planetary health through pioneering plant science research.

The Plant Biology Institute will unite world-class researchers who are focused on expanding the frontiers of plant science. Our research is focused on enhancing our ability to feed the planet while simultaneously improving the climate and ecosystem outcomes of food production. By embedding cutting-edge plant science research within an organisation that is focused on solving global challenges at scale, we aim to accelerate the timeline from discovery to global impact.

Areas of exploration include:

• Improved plant productivity, both indoors and outside.
• Reduced reliance on inputs including water, fertilisers, pesticides, and herbicides.
• Novel decarbonised plant-based production platforms for food and medicines.
• Advanced technologies that speed up discovery and deployment in plants. 

Researchers will have access to state-of-the-art laboratory and plant growth facilities and have opportunities to collaborate with experts at the forefront of research on AI, automation, and generative biology across the EIT ecosystem. They will also work with global leaders in market development, commercialisation, and impact creation. The Plant Biology Institute has long-term substantial funding to support the unique scale and ambition of its vision.

Your Role:

The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) is seeking an experienced Event Delivery and Genotyping Manager to join the Crop Transformation Pipeline team within the Plant Biology Institute. This role will lead molecular event confirmation, genotyping assay strategy, event advancement decisions and delivery of high-quality gene edited and transgenic crop events to downstream trait and product teams.

The successful candidate will be a technical authority in genotyping technologies for transgenic and gene edited crops, with strong experience in event characterization, assay development, sample tracking, molecular data interpretation and project delivery. They will connect transformation, tissue culture, greenhouse, vector design, bioinformatics and trait teams to ensure that events are confirmed, prioritized and handed over with robust data packages.

This role is critical to building an industrial-grade event delivery capability for crops including corn, wheat and other strategic species. The candidate will establish event stage-gate criteria, molecular QC workflows, genotyping vendor strategies, LIMS-enabled sample tracking and performance metrics that improve speed, quality and predictability of event delivery.

The candidate will own the downstream event confirmation and delivery process, ensuring that regenerated plants and events are sampled, genotyped, QC-reviewed, prioritized and handed over with clear molecular data packages.

Your Responsibilities:

• Lead the event delivery workflow from transformation output through plant recovery, sampling, molecular confirmation, quality review, advancement decisions and handover to trait, greenhouse or product teams.
• Design, validate and implement genotyping assays for transgenic and gene edited events, including transgene presence/absence, edit detection, zygosity, copy number, junction assays, backbone absence, on-target and off-target analysis, segregation tracking and event integrity.
• Apply appropriate genotyping technologies such as endpoint PCR, qPCR, ddPCR, KASP, HRM, Sanger sequencing, amplicon sequencing, targeted sequencing, NGS and targeted capture approaches to support event selection.
• Partner with the Vector Design Manager to ensure every construct is paired with a fit-for-purpose molecular assay plan before transformation begins.
• Develop event stage-gate criteria and decision frameworks for advancing gene edited and transgenic events based on edit outcome, transformation quality, copy number, expression/reporter data, regeneration status and downstream programme needs.
• Coordinate sample collection, DNA extraction, plate maps, barcoding, chain-of-custody, sample submission, vendor shipment and data return across internal laboratories and external service providers.
• Work with bioinformatics and data teams to analyze edit outcomes, chimerism/mosaicism, indel profiles, sequence confirmation, off-target risk, event integrity and molecular quality metrics.
• Own event inventory management, genotype data capture, sample traceability and event status dashboards using ELN, LIMS and structured data systems.
• Track key pipeline metrics including event yield, transformation efficiency, edit frequency, assay success rate, QC pass rate, sample turnaround time, regeneration-to-confirmed-event conversion and event delivery timelines.
• Manage external genotyping, sequencing and molecular characterization service providers, ensuring quality, turnaround time, budget and data format expectations are met.
• Create SOPs, sample submission templates, assay validation standards, QC checklists, data interpretation guides and event handover templates.
• Develop detailed project plans, resource forecasts, risk registers and milestone dashboards for event confirmation and delivery activities.
• Train and mentor scientists, research associates and technicians in sample tracking, genotyping workflows, assay interpretation and event advancement criteria.
• The successful candidate will combine technical depth in plant genotyping and event characterization with strong operational discipline. They will ensure that transformation outputs are converted into well-characterized, decision-ready events that can be advanced efficiently and confidently.
• The candidate will be expected to support IP creation, regulatory readiness and commercial translation by ensuring event data packages are accurate, traceable and fit-for-purpose for downstream development.

Collaboration and Communication

• Collaborate with vector design, crop transformation, tissue culture, greenhouse, trait discovery, bioinformatics, automation/AI, regulatory/IP, legal, procurement and external partner teams.
• Present event delivery status, molecular characterisation data, genotyping assay performance, risks and mitigation plans to project teams and leadership.
• Define clear standards for event sampling, molecular QC, genotyping interpretation, event advancement and handover across the pipeline.
• Contribute to training and capability building across the Plant Biology Institute, including best practice in genotyping assay development, event confirmation and data integrity.
• Represent the event delivery and genotyping function in internal and external collaborations, ensuring scientific quality, confidentiality and timely delivery.

Impact

• Establish a robust event delivery and genotyping engine that improves speed, predictability and confidence in gene edited and transgenic crop event generation.
• Improve event advancement decisions by ensuring transformation outputs are molecularly confirmed, QC-reviewed and prioritised using clear stage-gate criteria.
• Reduce wasted downstream effort by filtering events early using robust genotyping, molecular QC and data-driven decision-making.
• Support translation of scientific discoveries into commercially applicable crop improvement tools and trait products, including IP and regulatory-ready data packages.

Essential Skills, Qualifications & Experience:

• PhD in Plant Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Crop Science or a related discipline, or MSc with significant relevant industry experience. At least 5-7 years of experience in plant biotechnology, genotyping, molecular characterization or event advancement.
• Demonstrated expertise in genotyping technologies for gene edited and transgenic plants, including PCR, qPCR, ddPCR, KASP, Sanger sequencing, amplicon sequencing and NGS-based approaches.
• Strong experience designing, validating and interpreting molecular assays for event confirmation, including copy number, zygosity, insertion confirmation, junction analysis, backbone screening, edit outcome analysis and segregation tracking.
• Strong understanding of crop transformation workflows and the practical requirements for moving events from transformation through regeneration, sampling, genotyping, greenhouse transfer and downstream handover.
• Experience with molecular data interpretation for genome editing outcomes, including indels, precise edits, multiplex edits, chimerism/mosaicism and off-target assessment.
• Experience with ELN, LIMS, sample barcoding, plate maps, structured data capture, event inventory management and data integrity practices.
• Excellent project management skills, including milestone tracking, resource planning, vendor management, risk management and stakeholder coordination.
• Proven ability to manage external vendors, service providers or collaborators for genotyping, sequencing, DNA extraction, assay development or molecular characterization.
• Ability to communicate event status, molecular data, risks and advancement recommendations clearly to scientific, operational and leadership audiences.
• Strong troubleshooting, documentation and continuous improvement mindset.

Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Experience in industrial ag-biotech, commercial seed/trait development, molecular breeding, crop transformation platforms or product development pipelines.
• Hands-on experience with corn, wheat, soybean or other major crop species, including genotype-dependent transformation and event recovery challenges.
• Experience developing regulatory-ready molecular event data packages or working within GLP, QMS or quality-controlled research environments.
• Experience with high-throughput genotyping workflows, 96/384-well sample handling, automation, liquid handling, LIMS integration and dashboard reporting.
• Experience with whole-genome sequencing, targeted capture, off-target prediction/validation or bioinformatics-supported edit analysis.
• Experience building or leading a small technical team and establishing new operational processes in a fast-moving research environment.

• Salary dependent on experience + travel allowance + bonus

• Enhanced holiday. Our annual leave allowance is 25 days plus 8 bank holidays and an additional 3 days between Christmas and New Year. You will also have the opportunity to purchase an additional 5 days annual leave in January and July.
• Pension - Employer contribution 7.5%, minimum employee contribution 5%
• Life Assurance.
• Income Protection
• Private Medical Insurance as standard for you, your partner and any dependents. Including hospital Cash Plan
• Employee discounts
• Electric car scheme
• Nursery Salary Sacrifice scheme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Family Planning
• Neurodiversity support including advise and assessments
• Coaching & Therapy services