Scientist II, Upstream Polysaccharide Process Development

Join our Mission to Protect Humankind! Vaxcyte is a clinical-stage vaccine innovation company engineering high-fidelity vaccines to protect humankind from the consequences of bacterial diseases, which have serious and costly health consequences when left unchecked. Working to eradicate or treat bacterial infections such as invasive pneumococcal disease, Group A Strep, and Shigella is just the beginning. Our path to success is clear and well-defined, and Vaxcyte is set up to go the distance. WHAT we do is every bit as important as HOW we do it! Our work together is guided by four enduring core values: *RETHINK CONVENTION: We bring creative and intellectual diversity to every facet of the work we do in order to innovate and re-innovate the way vaccines are delivered. *AIM HIGH: We embody our collectively audacious goal to courageously make the most complex biologics ever attempted to protect humankind. *LEAD WITH HEART: Everyone leads at Vaxcyte with a kindness-first, inclusive approach to collaboration and vigorous debate that advances our business objectives. *MODEL EXCELLENCE: The magnitude of our challenge requires our shared commitment to demonstrating integrity, accountability, equality and clarity across communications and decision making. Summary: The Development organization is comprised of four Process teams: Protein, Polysaccharide, Conjugate Drug Substance (Conjugation), and Drug Product. These Process Development teams are supported by Analytical Development and Formulation Development teams. Vaxcyte is looking for a Scientist II with experience in microbial fermentation and upstream process development to join the Upstream Polysaccharide Process Development team. The candidate will be responsible for designing, executing, analyzing, and documenting experiments to develop, optimize, and characterize upstream processes for polysaccharide manufacturing using microorganisms. The successful candidate will have practical laboratory experience in microbial fermentation processes and the ability to apply scientific and engineering principles to experimental design, data interpretation, process troubleshooting, and technical decision-making. The role will require significant hands-on laboratory work, and this individual will be expected to document experimental procedures, results, conclusions, and recommendations in written and presentation formats. The successful candidate will lead assigned project activities, provide technical guidance to junior team members, collaborate with cross-functional teams, author technical documents, and communicate scientific results to internal stakeholders. Essential Functions: • Design, execute, analyze, and document upstream polysaccharide fermentation studies to support process development, optimization, characterization, scale-up, and vaccine production processes. • Develop and troubleshoot fermentation processes and operating parameters to improve product yield, quality, consistency, and robustness using appropriate statistical tools (e.g., DoE). • Perform microbiology, fermentation, and bioreactor operations, including equipment setup, operation, maintenance, troubleshooting, and automation script development for systems such as Ambr®250. • Coordinate and perform analytical testing, interpret experimental results, identify technical risks and process trends, and develop scientifically sound conclusions and recommendations. • Investigate unexpected or anomalous results, including variability in growth, yield, or polysaccharide quality attributes, through structured root-cause experimentation. • Support integration and interpretation of data across upstream, downstream, and analytical functions, in collaboration with Senior Scientist or function leads, to connect fermentation