Senior Sample Preparation Scientist

About us

Spore.Bio is a deeptech startup founded in 2023, building the next generation of microbiological quality control for food & beverage, pharmaceutical, and cosmetics manufacturing. Traditional microbiology testing is slow, costly, and a bottleneck to production — results take days when manufacturers need them in hours. We built something better: a platform combining advanced optical imaging and deep learning to detect bacterial contamination in 10 minutes, not days.

We're backed by LocalGlobe, Singular, and Plural Platform, and are entering an acceleration phase post-Series A. This role is central to what comes next.

About the role

We're looking for a Senior Sample Preparation Scientist — Founding Technical Role to own the development of our sample pre-treatment and consumable architecture — the critical upstream layer that makes our optical detection platform work at scale.

You know what it takes to take a separation concept from bench prototype to validated, deployable product. You've developed methods under real constraints — throughput, cost, integration, regulatory — and you've shipped. You understand that the best detection system in the world fails if the sample isn't right when it arrives.

This is a founding technical role in our instrumentation team, reporting directly to the CTO. You'll start as an individual contributor and build the team around you as we scale.

Missions

Build the separation & pre-treatment stack

• Design, develop and validate sample pre-treatment methods — from complex biological matrices (urine, blood, swabs, fermentation broths) to clean, analysis-ready outputs

• Develop and optimize membrane-based separation processes, including TFF, size exclusion, and affinity capture

• Implement and tune dielectrophoresis (DEP) and electrokinetic methods for bacterial concentration and isolation

• Design bio-capture functionalization strategies: surface chemistry, antibody/aptamer coupling, and non-specific binding mitigation

• Develop integrated microfluidic and millifluidic architectures that link pre-treatment stages to downstream optical detection

Drive TRL progression from POC to MVP

• Own the roadmap from TRL 2 (validated concept) through TRL 6 (prototype validated in relevant environment)

• Define design-of-experiments (DoE) frameworks across recovery rate, selectivity, throughput, and cost-per-assay

• Translate lab-validated methods into manufacturable consumables — materials selection, tolerance specs, assembly processes

• Interface tightly with our biophotonics and ML teams to ensure pre-treatment outputs are optimized for optical signal quality

Interface with optics & detection

• Understand how separation quality directly drives signal-to-noise in our optical stack (Raman, fluorescence, label-free imaging)

• Co-develop assay workflows with the biophotonics team to minimize optical interference from matrix components

• Contribute to IP strategy for separation methods and consumable designs

Build the team

• Progressively recruit and mentor separation scientists and R&D engineers as the project scales

• Establish lab protocols, documentation standards, and reproducibility frameworks from the ground up

• Work with external suppliers (membranes, DEP chips, fluidic components) and CROs when relevant

About you

Required

• 6–12 years of hands-on experience in separation science, purification development, or downstream processing — in an instrumentation, life science tools, or biotech context

• Deep expertise in at least two of: membrane separations , dielectrophoresis , bio-capture / affinity-based isolation , enzymatic digestion , microfluidics / millifluidics

• Demonstrated track record moving separation methods from POC to product-grade — not just academic or feasibility work

• Experience with life science instrumentation environment

• Strong experimental design skills: DoE, statistical analysis, failure mode thinking

• Comfort working in a small team, fast-moving environment where you define the process as much as follow it

• Solid understanding of how sample quality and matrix composition affect downstream optical or spectroscopic readout

Bonus

• Background in biophotonics, Raman spectroscopy, fluorescence or label-free optical detection

• Experience with consumable design for diagnostic or point-of-care applications

• Knowledge of microbiology and bacterial cell biology (our target analytes)

• Prior experience as a founding or early-stage hire at a deeptech startup

• PhD in chemistry, biochemical engineering, biomedical engineering, or related field

What we offer

• A genuinely novel scientific problem — you're not optimizing an existing product, you're building the foundation

• Direct line to the CTO and tight collaboration with a world-class engineering, microbiology and ML team

• The ability to hire your own team as we scale

• Equity (BSPCE)

• Mutuelle, transport, and standard French benefits

Interview process

1. 30-min introductory call with the Hiring Manager

2. Technical deep-dive — walk us through a separation method you developed from scratch: constraints, decisions, tradeoffs

3. 45-min interview with Tech Lead

4. 30-min final interview with Founders + lab visit at our Paris HQ

5. Reference calls