Consultant Chemometrician – Spectral Intelligence (SpecAI) & Bacterial ID

Key Outcomes and Responsibilities

• Bacterial ID Model Architecture:
• Design and execute supervised and unsupervised chemometric pipelines (e.g., PLS‑DA, etc.) for rapid discrimination of bacterial species and strains from hyperspectral data. 
• Contributetosample‑prep and data‑acquisition SOPs that maximize spectral information content and reduce confounders (media, growth phase, mixed cultures). 
• SpecAI Integration:
• Package chemometric algorithms for cloud‑native deployment inside SpecAI  
• MedTech / Regulatory Readiness 
• Help define analytical‑performance studies (LoD, specificity, repeatability) aligned with FDA guidelines for IVD instruments. 
• Produce clear technical documentation to support design‑history files and 510(k) / de novo pathways. 
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration: 
• Work on site at The Engine most weeks to white‑board with optical engineers, run lab experiments, and coach junior data scientists in chemometric best practices. 
• Present findings to leadership, partners, and occasionally to investors or strategic customers. 
• Thought Leadership:
• Author or co‑author conference papers and poster sessions (e.g., SciX, FACSS, Pittcon) to cement HyperSpectral’s leadership in spectral AI for microbiology.

Must‑Have Qualifications

• Ph.D. or Master’s in Chemometrics, Analytical Chemistry, Applied Statistics, Bioengineering, or related field. 
• 5+ years hands‑on building multivariate models for spectroscopic data (VNIR/MIR, Raman, FTIR, hyperspectral imaging). 
• Demonstrated success in classifying or quantifying bacterial or microbial signatures (medical diagnostics, food safety, or environmental monitoring). 
• Fluency in Python scientific stack (numpy, scikit‑learn, tensorflow/pyTorch), plus one of MATLAB or R. 
• Comfortable designing experiments and analyzing large data sets in collaboration with wet‑lab microbiologists. 
• Able to be physically present at The Engine (Central Square, Cambridge) at least one day most weeks; additional remote availability on short notice. 
• Self‑starter who thrives in fast‑moving, sometimes ambiguous start‑up environments and communicates crisply with cross‑disciplinary teams. 

Nice‑to‑Have Qualifications

• Experience preparing data packages for FDA, CE‑IVDR, or ISO 13485 submissions. 
• Familiarity with embedded ML optimization (TensorRT, ONNX, Edge TPUs). 
• Publication record or patents in spectral classification, chemometrics, or AI‑driven diagnostics. 
• Prior work with fluorescence or Raman‑based pathogen detection.

Engagement Logistics

• Commitment: ~20 – 40hours/month, spread flexibly; peaks aligned with lab campaigns and model‑release sprints. 
• Location: Hybrid—remote plus regular on‑site at The Engine, Cambridge MA. 
• Compensation: Hourly consulting rate commensurate with expertise; eligibility for future company‑wide incentive plan. 
• Start: September 2025 or earlier.