Latest Scientist Job at Nat Habit
Looking for a Scientist Job in India’s fast-growing biotech and personal care industry? Here’s an exciting Life Science Job opportunity with Nat Habit, an innovative research-driven company developing natural, science-backed personal care products. If you have expertise in protein engineering, enzymology, molecular biology, or biotechnology, this could be your chance to work on cutting-edge research, enzyme development, and product innovation. Explore this excellent opportunity for life science graduates and experienced professionals seeking impactful R&D careers.
About Nat Habit
Nat Habit is a fast-growing Indian personal care company focused on developing natural, science-backed products using traditional Ayurvedic wisdom combined with modern biotechnology. The company performs primary research to understand biological mechanisms, identify key biomarkers, and validate product efficacy through scientific and clinical studies. Supported by experienced entrepreneurs and leading institutional investors, Nat Habit offers exciting Life Science Jobs for professionals passionate about innovation, biotechnology, and research-driven product development.
Job Details:
- Job Title: Scientist – Protein Engineering & Enzymology
- Company: Nat Habit
- Location: Gurugram (Sector 18, Udyog Vihar) or Manesar, Haryana, India
- Employment Type: Full-Time
- Work Schedule: Monday to Saturday (2nd & 4th Saturdays Off)
About the Role
Nat Habit is seeking a Scientist – Protein Engineering & Enzymology to drive research and innovation in enzyme engineering and biocatalysis for the development of next-generation personal care, food, and bio-based products.
The successful candidate will contribute to designing, engineering, screening, and optimizing enzymes capable of performing targeted biochemical transformations. Working at the intersection of protein engineering, enzymology, molecular biology, and process development, the role will involve creating scalable enzyme-enabled manufacturing solutions while supporting the development of novel formulations inspired by Ayurveda and validated through modern scientific methodologies.
The position requires close collaboration with multidisciplinary teams, including fermentation scientists, formulation researchers, analytical scientists, and process development specialists.
Key Responsibilities
Enzyme Design & Protein Engineering
- Design, engineer, and optimize enzymes for targeted biochemical reactions across personal care, food, and other biotechnology applications.
- Develop enzymes capable of converting precursor molecules into desired intermediates and bioactive compounds.
- Apply protein engineering approaches to improve catalytic efficiency, substrate specificity, stability, and overall enzyme performance.
- Evaluate enzyme families and identify opportunities for novel enzyme applications.
Enzymology & Biocatalysis Research
- Investigate enzyme-substrate interactions using first-principles enzymology.
- Study catalytic mechanisms, active-site chemistry, substrate binding, reaction specificity, and product selectivity.
- Evaluate factors influencing enzyme performance, including:
- pH tolerance
- Temperature stability
- Enzyme inhibition
- Catalytic efficiency
- Side-product formation
- Process robustness
- Develop enzyme-based solutions for biochemical transformations that support innovative product development.
Protein Engineering & Enzyme Discovery
- Apply advanced protein engineering techniques, including:
- Rational protein design
- Directed evolution
- Site-directed mutagenesis
- Sequence mining
- Structural modeling
- Comparative enzyme family analysis
- High-throughput activity screening
- Identify and evaluate enzymes from diverse biological sources, including:
- Microorganisms
- Plants
- Food-grade organisms
- Metagenomic libraries
- Commercial enzyme collections
- Assess enzyme suitability based on activity, scalability, cost-effectiveness, safety, and intellectual property considerations.
Assay Development & Enzyme Characterization
- Design and optimize enzyme assay systems for evaluating:
- Enzyme activity
- Catalytic efficiency
- Reaction kinetics
- Conversion yield
- Product formation
- Substrate depletion
- Stability under varying conditions
- Formation of undesirable by-products
- Generate reproducible experimental data to support enzyme optimization and process development.
Fermentation & Process Development
- Collaborate with fermentation scientists to express recombinant enzymes in suitable microbial hosts, including:
- Bacteria
- Yeast
- Filamentous fungi
- Support optimization of enzyme production, purification, and scalability.
- Translate laboratory enzyme performance into commercially viable manufacturing processes.
Product & Process Optimization
- Evaluate enzyme performance under real manufacturing conditions, including:
- High-solid fermentation systems
- pH-shifting environments
- Industrial-scale reaction conditions
- Design enzyme immobilization and reuse strategies to:
- Improve enzyme stability
- Reduce manufacturing costs
- Enhance process efficiency
- Simplify downstream processing
- Contribute to process optimization by balancing enzyme loading, reaction time, yield, and overall manufacturing economics.
Innovation & Intellectual Property
- Develop novel enzyme technologies and biocatalytic processes.
- Generate innovative concepts suitable for patent protection, including:
- Novel enzyme applications
- Enzyme cascades
- Optimized reaction conditions
- Substrate combinations
- Enzyme-enabled manufacturing routes
- Contribute to the organization’s research pipeline through scientific innovation and technology development.
Required Qualifications
Educational Qualification
- Candidates should possess a Master’s degree or Ph.D. in one or more of the following disciplines:
- Biochemistry
- Biotechnology
- Molecular Biology
- Protein Engineering
- Enzymology
- Biochemical Engineering
- Life Sciences
- Related Biological Sciences
Required Skills & Competencies
Technical Expertise
- Candidates should demonstrate strong knowledge of:
- Enzymology
- Protein biochemistry
- Protein engineering
- Molecular biology
- Biocatalysis
- Recombinant protein expression
- Enzyme characterization
Laboratory Experience
- Hands-on experience with:
- Enzyme screening
- Enzyme activity assays
- Enzyme kinetics
- Protein purification
- Stability testing
- Recombinant DNA techniques
- Cloning
- Mutagenesis
- Directed evolution
- Rational protein engineering
Bioinformatics & Computational Biology
- Experience using bioinformatics tools such as:
- BLAST
- UniProt
- AlphaFold
- Sequence alignment software
- Structural modeling platforms
- Conserved residue analysis
- Enzyme family mining tools
Analytical Techniques
- Proficiency in laboratory techniques including:
- High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)
- Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS)
- UV-Visible Spectroscopy
- SDS-PAGE
- Protein quantification assays
- Colorimetric assays
- Enzyme activity assays
Process Development
Strong understanding of:
- Industrial enzyme applications
- Scale-up considerations
- Process economics
- Downstream processing
- Enzyme immobilization
- Enzyme reuse strategies
- Manufacturing optimization
Candidates should be able to evaluate enzyme performance from both scientific and commercial perspectives, considering enzyme cost, scalability, reaction efficiency, regulatory requirements, and product quality.
Key Competencies
- Strong scientific reasoning and problem-solving abilities.
- Excellent analytical and experimental design skills.
- Ability to think systematically across the complete biocatalytic process, from substrate selection to product formation and manufacturing economics.
- Excellent documentation and technical writing skills.
- Strong collaboration and communication abilities within multidisciplinary research teams.
- Innovation-driven mindset with an interest in translating scientific discoveries into commercially viable products.
