Location
Central London (initially remote until venture incorporation and spin-out, circa end of Q2 2027). Final location to be determined.

Hours
Full Time

Salary
£4,166 per month (fixed consultancy fee until company launch and pre-seed investment secured)

About the Role
Join Deep Science Ventures (DSV) as a Co-Founder-in-Residence to lead the creation of a venture focused on priming plant resilience to climate risks. This unique opportunity places you at the forefront of agtech innovation, addressing urgent challenges in climate adaptation for food security and the bioeconomy. You will work closely with DSV and Renaissance Philanthropy teams to refine and advance the technical and commercial foundations of the venture, including the technical thesis, IP strategy, value proposition, regulatory positioning, fundraising, and company strategy. Upon successful Investment Committee approval, you will receive pre-seed investment and spin out the company by the end of Q2 2027, owning a significant equity stake and receiving ongoing support post-spinout.

Climate volatility is increasingly impacting global agriculture, causing severe harvest losses and broader socio-economic disruptions. Current crop resilience strategies often impose economic trade-offs by permanently locking crops into defensive states. This venture aims to pioneer a new paradigm of on-demand plant resilience, enabling crops to be temporarily primed to withstand acute climate stresses only when needed, leveraging advances in RNA-based interventions, virus-enabled gene modulation, signalling peptides, and stress-responsive biologicals. This approach promises adaptive, in-season crop protection aligned with weather forecasts and early stress signals, addressing both extreme shocks and everyday volatility.

Commercially, the space is underdeveloped with existing products often ineffective or poorly targeted. The venture will capitalize on emerging regulatory and technical feasibility for novel biological and RNA-based crop inputs, meeting growing grower demand for reliable yield protection under climate volatility.

Experience
- Core scientific expertise (PhD or equivalent industry R&D experience) in plant physiology, crop science, molecular biology, epigenetics, microbiology, or related fields.
- Broad knowledge across relevant technological areas such as delivery systems for biologicals, developmental regulation and priming, plant-microbiome engineering, accelerated trait development and gene editing, and crop environment engineering.
- Proven translational execution skills including managing discovery-to-field programs, regulatory and investor data package preparation, partnership development, and scalable IP strategy.
- Cross-functional ownership experience across R&D, product, regulatory, and IP with demonstrated outcomes such as trial results, submissions, patents, or product launches.
- Venture creation, fundraising, or product leadership experience in agtech, biotech, or adjacent sectors.
- Equivalents considered: deep industry R&D in agtech/biotech or a PhD with applied field work and comparable outcomes.

About You
- Highly motivated by unsolved challenges in climate risk mitigation and eager to challenge the status quo in agriculture.
- Impact-driven with a strong entrepreneurial mindset, able to take initiative and work effectively in ambiguous, fast-paced, and demanding environments.
- Collaborative team player capable of working across cross-functional teams.
- Preferred: Previous founder or C-suite experience in biotech, fundraising experience (VC), commercial and business development expertise including networks in agrochem/pesticide development, and a strong track record of building and leading successful teams.

Qualifications
- PhD or equivalent industry experience in relevant scientific disciplines.
- Demonstrated ability to innovate and deliver impactful results in scientific and commercial contexts.
- Entrepreneurial experience and venture creation skills are highly valued.