Materials Scientist

About Cellsense 

Cellsense transforms algae and cellulose into sustainable beads and beaded fabrics for the fashion, jewelry, and beauty industries. Cellsense’s proprietary material replaces sources of microplastics and heavy metal pollution while offering designers a wide range of brilliant colors, clarities, and properties such as fluorescence. Our innovative manufacturing system cuts lead time of customized beaded products from weeks to days by eliminating expensive tooling and tedious manual labor from conventional processes. Currently, we are focused on scaling up our process while engaging in paid pilots with industry partners. We recently closed our pre-seed round and have received inbound interest from 55+ companies. You would be joining at a particularly exciting stage of growth.

The Role 

We're looking for a material scientist to help lead formulation and chemistry development at Cellsense as we scale. You'll work across our biopolymer systems to improve material clarity, surface finish, durability, and processing behavior, and support the transition of formulations from lab to manufacturing. You'll collaborate closely with our founder, engineering team, and technical advisors.

As part of a small team, your work won't be limited to the lab. You'll join brand partner meetings, contribute to IP strategy, help evaluate new product directions, and occasionally support grant writing. Your formulations will go directly into commercial production.

Responsibilities

• Design and refine multi-component biopolymer blends that balance clarity, surface feel, mechanical strength, and durability
• Experiment with fillers, plasticizers, crosslinking chemistry, and processing aids to hit specific optical and mechanical targets
• Characterize material properties using relevant analytical methods to inform formulation decisions
• Translate abstract design briefs from brand partners into measurable material specifications and reproducible protocols
• Optimize rheology so our automated dispensing and molding systems run consistently
• Establish and maintain QA/QC standards across production
• Contribute to grant submissions when required

What We're Looking For

• MS or PhD in materials science, polymer chemistry, chemical engineering, or a closely related field with at least 2 years of industry experience. Strong candidates with a BS and 3-5 years of relevant industry experience will also be considered.
• Experience formulating polymers, hydrogels, or composites; not just characterizing them. You've actually mixed, modified, and scaled materials yourself.
• Understanding of biopolymers, crosslinking mechanisms, and phase behavior.
• Can independently design experiments, execute protocols, analyze data, and document results so they can be reproduced and scaled.
• Comfortable taking initiative and working across disciplines in a startup environment.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary + equity
• Health insurance and benefits
• Opportunity to work on meaningful environmental impact as part of a tightly knit team
• Ownership of formulation and chemistry development
• Job Type: Full-time, on-site
• Travel: 10-15% (domestic)

Apply

Send your CV and, if available, a brief summary or portfolio of relevant projects to hiring@cellsense.bio with the subject line "Material Scientist."