Vice President, Process Design & Operations

OMAHA, NE (HQ) or REMOTE (MIDWEST) 

ABOUT US:
We use American corn and existing bioethanol infrastructure to produce critical chemicals right here at home—powering U.S. competitiveness and securing our nation's supply chains - while reinvesting in agricultural America. Bluestem Biosciences has engineered a breakthrough in American manufacturing. Our proprietary biomanufacturing process represents a new, cost-effective, and advantaged way to produce platform chemicals domestically. With the foundation of existing infrastructure, we convert abundant, renewable American corn into high-value chemicals at scale.🌽 JOIN US AS WE ACCELERATE TO COMMERCIALIZATION

ROLE SUMMARY: 

We are seeking an experienced and versatile Vice President of Process Design & Operations to lead the development, scale-up, and engineering of our downstream purification processes. This executive role is pivotal in translating our novel biomanufacturing breakthroughs into commercially viable realities. The ideal candidate will be a subject matter expert in chemical process engineering with expertise in distillation and other critical purification unit operations.

This is a leadership role that blends strategic process design with hands-on operational oversight. Your responsibilities will extend beyond theoretical process design to include direct operational leadership of our development programs at the pilot and demonstration scales. While this position focuses exclusively on downstream purification, you will work as a key strategic partner to our internal strain design and fermentation teams, ensuring seamless integration and communication between upstream and downstream development. You will lead relationships with external process development partners (CROs) and engineering firms to drive the efficient deployment of our technology.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Lead the design, development, and scaling of safe, efficient, and cost-effective downstream purification processes for our bio-manufactured products.
• Provide expert technical leadership in key purification unit operations, with a primary focus on distillation, and secondary focus on other unit operations such as filtration and ion exchange.
• Directly oversee the operational execution of process development programs at pilot and demonstration scales, ensuring robust data collection and innovative problem-solving.
• Translate bench-scale data into comprehensive process designs, including PFDs and P&IDs, and drive the continuous refinement of techno-economic models for Bluestem's integrated plant designs.
• Lead and manage relationships with external partners, including contract research organizations (CROs) for process development and engineering firms for scale-up and execution.
• Manage the technology transfer of the purification process to commercial scale, serving as the "Owner's Engineer" in collaboration with contracted EPC firms.
• Collaborate closely with commercial and product development teams to provide CAPEX and OPEX estimates for implementing Bluestem's production roadmap.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Advanced degree in Chemical Engineering or a related field, plus 10+ years of progressive experience in a process development, production, or engineering leadership role. Differing combinations of experience and education will be considered.
• Demonstrated knowledge of product purification designed to meet challenging product specifications is required. Deep, hands-on experience with both single-stage and fractional distillation, from conceptual design to operational troubleshooting, is essential.
• Proven expertise across a range of downstream unit operations, including but not limited to filtration and ion exchange.
• A track record of successfully managing process development operations at various scales and leading technology transfer to commercial-scale facilities.
• Proven ability to lead technical projects and manage relationships with external process development groups (CROs), contractors, collaborators, and engineering firms.
• While this role focuses on downstream processing, a working understanding of upstream fermentation processes and how they impact purification is essential for effective cross-functional collaboration.
• Proficiency with process modeling software (e.g., ASPEN+, SuperPro Designer) is highly desirable but must be paired with strong operational and hands-on expertise.

Bluestem is an equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status.