Senior R&D Formulation Chemist

Mycolever is an innovative TechBio/Biotech startup dedicated to discovering and delivering specialty performance bioingredients for the consumer care sector and beyond. Mycolever is driving fungal innovation for a better tomorrow.

With a focus on harnessing the unique capabilities of fungi, Mycolever's integrated platform spans the entire lifecycle from discovery and wet-lab validation to scale-up and commercialisation.

We are looking for a full-time Senior Formulation Chemist with a strong background in personal care and cosmetics and a genuine interest in the wider consumer care space. You will own how our fermented bioingredients become real products — designing and running the bench work yourself, building the regulatory and claims foundation beneath it, and working directly with our customers' R&D teams. This role offers a rare opportunity to shape an entirely new ingredient class from discovery through to market, at the intersection of biotechnology and next-generation sustainable consumer ingredients.

Tasks

• Build our application leadership: Make Mycolever the reference for how our compounds are used. Create reference formulations, application know-how and published technical material deep enough that any formulator working with our ingredients starts from our playbook.
• Formulate with innovative molecules: Design, plan and personally run formulation experiments for our fermented bioingredient, from early bench concepts through pilot batches — creating new products and refining existing ones.
• Turn data into claims: Partner with marketing and business development to define what we can credibly claim, identify the efficacy and safety data required, scope and commission the right tests with external partners, and translate the results into clear, defensible claims.
• Get into customers' labs: Showcase our formulations and guide customer R&D teams on their own benches and produce technical material. Drive the transfer of formulations from bench to pilot and manufacturing scale, working with external partners and co-manufacturers as needed.
• Own the path to market: Set and own the regulatory strategy for our formulations under the EU Cosmetics Regulation and adjacent consumer care frameworks — INCI naming, safety documentation and Product Information Files — working with external consultants for e.g. dossier execution.
• Decode how new bioactives behave: Design and run stability, compatibility and performance studies across a range of formulation matrices, analyse the results, and work with our discovery and R&D teams to understand how new fungal biocompounds perform in formulation — feeding those insights straight back into ingredient development.
• Be our technical centre of gravity: Act as the link between R&D, regulatory and commercial, and be prepared to mentor a growing application team — while remaining a hands-on contributor yourself.
• Keep records straight: Operate, calibrate and maintain lab equipment safely and in line with our SOPs, SDS, CoA, batch logs and detailed experiment records.

Requirements

• A degree in cosmetic science, chemistry, pharmaceutical technology, chemical engineering or similar
• >6 years of hands-on formulation experience in a fast paced environment in personal care and cosmetics
• The ability to explain formulation science to a customer's marketing team without losing the science. You communicate well across functions and can translate technical formulation detail for marketing, regulatory, and commercial colleagues
• You are senior enough to design and drive an experimental program independently, setting priorities and making technical calls with minimal oversight
• Experience formulating with both functional, bioactive or multifunctional ingredients
• You are comfortable with ambiguity and enjoy formulating with novel, less-characterized ingredients rather than only well-documented conventional actives
• Comfort with ingredients that have no precedent: incomplete datasheets, no established use levels, no formulary to copy from
• Experience commissioning and interpreting external testing — stability, efficacy, safety, claims support
• Familiarity with skin-related testing methods across the full chain: in vitro assays and reconstructed skin models, ex vivo explants, and in vivo instrumental and panel testing (TEWL, corneometry, image analysis). You know which method actually answers the question at hand — particularly for a bioactive
• Working knowledge of the regulations such as EU Cosmetics Regulation, ECHA/REACH, INCI, CPNP notification, PIF structure, safety assessment. You don't need to be a regulatory specialist, but you need to know what good looks like, how to prep documentation and how to engage external support
• Fluent English. German or French is a strong plus but not required

Benefits

• Work Environment: On-site, lab-based role at our facility (Bonn area) — you'll be at the bench as much as at the desk.
• Team: Join a collaborative and interdisciplinary team of experts in bioinformatics, biotechnology, and business development.
• Growth Opportunities: Rapid career growth in a high-impact, innovative company.
• Events & Networking: Regular team events and access to exclusive industry networks.

Hiring Process

We believe in transparency and efficiency. Our hiring process consists of four stages, designed to provide a smooth and quick experience.

Process Details:

• Initial Get-to-Know: A 30-minute chat with one of our founders to get to know you and discuss your expectations.
• Case interview: A short take-home or practical exercise related to formulation problem-solving followed by a 60-minute mini-case study and interview to assess your technical skills and discuss your past projects. References are a plus.
• Final meeting: A 60-minute final with our founding team, either in person over lunch or remotely, to dive deeper into your fit with Mycolever.