Mile High Labs (“MHL”) is an exciting company with incredible potential that powers the world’s novel consumer packaged goods. Our quality commitment is a promise we keep throughout our entire process—from the farm to the lab to the customer. Our portfolio of hemp-based cannabinoid ingredients is trusted by leading global brands in creating a generation of innovative consumer products. Three core values underscore everything we do: Quality, Service, and Integrity, from the partnerships we build to the people we hire to the products we produce. Quality isn't simply a business unit. It's a value that we use to identify with people (we employ the highest quality employees), products (we only create only products that we love), and decisions (we seek to make the most informed decisions). Innovative R&D and Quality are the fabrics that tie together everything we do. Mile High Labs is a group of great people committed to doing the right thing. We've been honored on the Forbes list of America's Best Startup Employers. We're constantly looking for professionals who want to make this company and the CBD consumer experience the best it can be. If you care about this industry as profoundly as we do, please look over our position below:
The Senior Scientist, Organic Chemistry (“Scientist”) is a key member of MHL’s research and development team. This position is responsible for all strategic research and development involving organic and medicinal chemistry, including, but not limited to internal and external R&D initiatives.
The Senior Scientist will ultimately be responsible for developing MHL’s synthesis and discovery platform and contributing to developing and attaining the organization’s innovation goals. In addition to the R&D components of the role, the Scientist will be tasked with determining new areas of scientific exploration based on market demand and evolving industry and scientific dynamics. In collaboration with their R&D colleagues, the Scientist will work to develop, implement, and continually improve increasingly sophisticated systems, processes, and procedures in the R&D department. The Scientist, along with R&D colleagues, will from time to time support the optimization of MHL’s commercial production processes, products, and methodology. This is an outstanding opportunity for a seasoned scientist with demonstrated operational experience and a proven track record of innovation to join a high-potential organization in a dynamic industry. Our ideal candidate is a focused self-starter that needs minimal direction in contributing to the innovation initiatives of our organization.
What will you do?
Research & Development
• Develop, scale-up and implement selected process chemistries that improve or introduce commercial products.
• Design and perform experiments to develop fundamental understanding for the successful scale-up and operation of new and existing process unit operations.
• Design and perform scale-down/scale-up experiments to demonstrate process unit operations.
• Develop and maintain relationships with academic and commercial institutions to further the understanding and research of complex ingredient chemistries, manufacturing processes and novel scientific applications.
Commercial Support
• Serve a lead role in identifying readily accessible dietary ingredient candidates for commercial development.
• Partner with various departments and management in developing business cases and models for potential areas of growth and new product introduction.
• Collect, correlate, and report data, providing a basis for intellectual property protection of developed innovation and, where appropriate, for publication of results in referred journals, scientific meetings, trade shows and publications.
• Promote a culture of high performance and continuous improvement that values teamwork, learning and a commitment to execution.
• Establish and monitor department’s performance, development, and delivery goals, assign accountabilities, set objectives, establish priorities, conduct continuous appraisals, and adjustments.
Operations Support
• Collaborate with MHL’s process development and engineering teams to support the production team with the development and implementation of advanced methods of distillation, purification, separation, and any other processing.
• Support MHL in developing and implementing, as needed, updated methods and systems to ensure best practices are utilized in processing.
• Ad hoc support as needed.
• Must follow hazardous waste procedures when selecting, marking, labeling, inspecting, moving, or otherwise handling hazardous waste containers or reading and applying federal and/or state hazardous waste regulations or record-keeping requirements.
• All other duties as assigned.
What Education is needed for this role?
• Master's (or equivalent) Degree in Organic Chemistry, or related discipline, required.
• PhD is highly preferred.
Do you have this Experience?
• Minimum 5 years’ experience in a research and development environment with exposure to natural products.
Do you have these Specialized Skills?
• Demonstrated expertise in the laboratory development and scale-up of the following unit operations: Prep-scale normal phase, reverse phase, and ion- exchange chromatography, extraction, evaporation, distillation, crystallization, precipitation, filtration, and drying.
• Demonstrated knowledge in the operation of analytical instrumentation (HPLC, CC, CC-MS, HPLC-TQ a plus) and interpretation of results (including NMR).
• Entrepreneurial team player who can multitask while advancing their respective function.
• Superior management skills: ability to influence and engage direct and indirect reports and peers.
• Excellent judgment and creative problem-solving skills.
• Demonstrated track record of success facilitating progressive organizational change and development within a growing organization.
• Intermediate communication (written and verbal) skills to deliver more complex information effectively.
• Intermediate problem-solving skills to be able to manage complex tasks and work through a solution with little guidance and direction.
• Experience in food, beverage, drug, dietary supplement, cosmetic, or related experience.
• Experience in research and development related to hemp/cannabis a plus.
• Experience partnering with academic institutions and third-party strategic partners on cutting edge research initiatives.
• Working knowledge of regulatory compliance issues in manufacturing and the QC laboratory.
• Experience in multistep syntheses.
• Experience in the purification and characterization of organic compounds.
Will you have Leadership responsibility?
• The position does not currently have direct reports, but the right candidate will be ready to accept management roles when provided.
What makes us different?
• Ongoing training, development, and support for a career in the CBD/ cannabinoid industry.
• The opportunity to be a part of a rapidly expanding global CBD company.
• Fun, fast-paced environment with opportunities for career growth.
Compensation: $75,000.00 - $95,000.00 / Medical, Dental, Vision & FSA Benefits / Paid Time Off (PTO) / 401k