For 75 years, Charles River employees have worked together to assist in the discovery, development and safe manufacture of new drug therapies. When you join our family, you will have a significant impact on the health and well-being of people across the globe. Whether your background is in life sciences, finance, IT, sales or another area, your skills will play an important role in the work we perform. In return, we’ll help you build a career that you can feel passionate about.
Job Summary
Do you have hands on expertise in stem cell culture?
Would you like to apply your expertise to deliver on high profile, innovative drug discovery programmes to further research?
Have you got the desire to improve health and lives?
Charles River Discovery are excited to be recruiting for a Technical Specialist in Stem Cell Culture to join our laboratory operations at our site in Chesterford Research Park!
The Technical Specialist Stem Cell Culture will play a key role in delivering high quality cell products through culturing, differentiating stem cells (ES and iPSC) to support client projects within the drug discovery space. This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced individual to continue to develop their skillset and interface with global life science organisations.
What you’ll be doing:
- Culture and differentiate embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) using defined protocols.
- Execution of routine technical and non-technical tasks with high level of competency and minimal supervision.
- Owns workload to meet agreed deliverables with awareness of how this impacts the immediate and wider team.
- Perform quality control assays including qPCR, immunocytochemistry (ICC), and other phenotypic readouts.
- Support complex co-culture systems and scale up differentiated cells for downstream screening assays.
- Plan and organise daily lab work, communicating with project leaders and other stakeholders.
- Prepare technical documentation and participate in client calls to discuss results or address scientific queries.
- Demonstrate ability to identify range of technical issues, and report to relevant managerial delegate in a timely manner.
- Accountable for accurate reporting of billable time, aware of financial impact across projects portfolio and division.
- Stay up to date with sector insights relevant to the scientific field, sharing knowledge within the group.
What We Offer You:
- A very comprehensive benefits package from day one, including a large pension contribution, private medical for you (and can add family members), private dental care, critical illness cover, bonus and more!
- Access to great discounts via our CREDS discount scheme.
- Global opportunities and strong career progression.
- The chance to work on several varied projects and liaise globally and nationally with other business areas.
- To be able make a difference to health and wellbeing of people.
- To continue your own career growth.
- Flexible and hybrid working.
- Parental leave.
- Group Life Assurance and Group Income Protection.
- Remote GP access 24/7.
- Well-being support and initiatives.
- Cycle to work scheme.
Profile and Requirements
- Degree qualified (MSc preferred) within a relevant scientific discipline.
- Hands-on experience with ES/iPSC culture and differentiation, ideally within the CRO or biotech space.
- Outstanding aseptic technique and attention to detail – you work meticulously and reliably.
- Experience in qPCR, ICC, and general molecular/cell biology techniques.
- A collaborative mindset and the ability to communicate effectively across teams.
- Experience in internal or external client interaction across various platforms is desirable
- A positive, can-do attitude, with the ability to manage workloads and adapt to changing project needs
About Discovery
Discovery from Charles River is industry-proven in the successful development of novel therapies, with over 350 patents and 80 preclinical drug candidates delivered to our sponsors in the past 17 years. Backed by more than 650 scientists, our comprehensive, integrated portfolio employs the latest technology and platforms to provide chemistry, biology, and pharmacology services that support clients from the earliest stages of hit identification all the way through to IND. Our client-focused, collaborative approach creates true partnerships that anticipate challenges, overcome obstacles, and move us forward together on the journey of getting new drugs to market.
About Charles River
Charles River is an early-stage contract research organization (CRO). We have built upon our foundation of laboratory animal medicine and science to develop a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support clients from target identification through preclinical development. Charles River also provides a suite of products and services to support our clients’ clinical laboratory testing needs and manufacturing activities. Utilizing this broad portfolio of products and services enables our clients to create a more flexible drug development model, which reduces their costs, enhances their productivity and effectiveness to increase speed to market.
With over 20,000 employees within 110 facilities in over 20 countries around the globe, we are strategically positioned to coordinate worldwide resources and apply multidisciplinary perspectives in resolving our client’s unique challenges. Our client base includes global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, government agencies and hospitals and academic institutions around the world.
At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people’s lives. Our mission, our excellent science and our strong sense of purpose guide us in all that we do, and we approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe. We have proudly worked on 80% of the drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the past five years.
At Charles River Laboratories, we recognize and recruit all talent. We are a company committed to the principle of diversity and inclusion and work daily in this direction.
