---
title: 'Plant Synthetic Biologist at OXMAN'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/plant-synthetic-biologist-oxman-new-york-7a33g80cgs4w'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-11'
---

# Plant Synthetic Biologist at OXMAN

- **Company:** OXMAN
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-07-14
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/oxman/1c483c66-7428-4ee6-abad-d86b42e2ce66

## Job description

## OXMAN

OXMAN is a hybrid Design and R&D company that fuses design, technology, and biology to invent multi-scale products and environments. We reject the human-centric design paradigms that have divorced us from Nature, and instead pursue a Nature-centric approach—delivering solutions by, for, and with the natural world. We design across scales for systems-level impact, treating every construct as a whole system of complex interrelations rather than an isolated object.

## Role Overview

OXMAN is seeking a Plant Synthetic Biologist to join an interdisciplinary team of scientists, fabricators, and designers. Successful applicants embody stellar technical skills, hold the capacity to navigate and resolve uncertainty, and demonstrate a strong capacity for outside-the-box problem solving. They have demonstrated work rooted in sound scientific reasoning and process-driven design; exemplify a passion for systems-based thinking with a wide range of potential applications for their work; personify an appreciation for engineering, science, and art; and seek synergy between biology, technology, and the environment in research and direct industrial utility. The Plant Synthetic Biologist will play a key role in designing and implementing novel projects and applications of synthetic biology principles to a variety of biological and bio-inspired systems—from protoplasts and tissue cultures to whole organisms and biotic-abiotic hybrid systems. This work will advance a future of unification between synthetic biology and design, wherein the result could be a proof-of-concept product/process, art objects, or novel tools and techniques.

## Key Responsibilities

- Lead plant biology projects across all stages, from concept development to product fruition
- Design and execute experiments that develop, validate, and/or enable novel products/processes that fundamentally leverage synthetic biology
- Maintain high-quality documentation of scientific output and research in the forms of written reports, electronic lab notebooks, internal databases, code comments, etc.
- Nurture and augment the scientific vision of OXMAN, upholding core design principles and ensuring the highest and most innovative quality of work
- Actively partner with a multidisciplinary team of professionals, including other biologists, engineers, and designers, across scientific and design pursuits
- Communicate ideas, work, and progress clearly, including by engaging in team meetings, presentations, and other creative communication outlets

Required Experience

- PhD or equivalent, with a focus on bioengineering/synthetic biology and its applications in the plant kingdom.
- Minimum 3 years of industry or academic experience in plant biology research, genetic engineering, and/or application R&D for synthetic biology systems.
- Portfolio of highly successful scientific or engineering work demonstrating out-of-the-box thinking and stellar taste
- Fluency in the use of relevant synthetic biology tools, including physical equipment and methods used for plant growth, tissue culture, and regeneration, sequence design software, transformation and cloning, etc.

Essential Qualities

- Ability to thrive in a self-directed environment
- Excellent project management skills, organizational skills, and attention to detail
- Strong commitment to the team; maintains positive working relationships with diverse people, including internal team and external partners
- Embodies ethics and integrity in all work with impeccable scientific integrity, respecting both company and broader community policies in all conduct

## About OXMAN

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: OXMAN is a design company fusing design, technology, and biology to invent multi-scale products and environments that empower synergy between Nature and humanity.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Startup/Early Stage)
- **Headquarters**: New York, New York, United States (787 Eleventh Ave)
- **Founded**: 2024 (public launch)
- **Founders**: Neri Oxman

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Design Services, Biotechnology, Materials Science, Architecture
- Target customers: B2B (corporate partners, industry clients), Academia, and Nature as a "co-client"
- Mission or purpose statement: To shift from human-centric design to Nature-centric design, creating design solutions by, for, and with Nature while advancing humanity. The company aims to heal the rift between Nature and humanity.

## Products & Services
- **O° Shoe (The O Shoe)**: A 100% biodegradable shoe made without petrochemicals, producing zero microplastics. Unveiled in October 2024. Represents the company's platform technology applied to consumer goods.
- **Platform Technologies**: R&D arm that invents platform technologies enabling design and production "by, for, and with Nature." These platforms can be applied across industries and scales—from consumer goods to urban plans, pharmaceuticals to apparel, organisms to rockets.
- **Design & Consulting Services**: Activist design practice that partners with industry and academia to implement Nature-centric values across design, manufacturing, construction, and operational practices.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding — Not publicly disclosed
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Goodman Group (partnership to explore design for ecosystem biodiversity and resilience), Foster + Partners (designed the OXMAN lab in NYC)
- **Growth Signals**: Headcount of ~24 employees (+4.5% YoY growth); active job postings; public launch in October 2024 with significant press coverage; first product (O° Shoe) unveiled; partnership with major real estate group Goodman Group

## Competitive Advantages
- **Founder & Brand**: Founded by Neri Oxman, a world-renowned designer, architect, and former MIT Media Lab professor, giving the company immense credibility and a powerful network.
- **Interdisciplinary Approach**: Uniquely combines hardware, software, and "wetware" (biology) in a single practice, integrating an atelier, workshop, and lab.
- **Nature-Centric Design Philosophy**: A radical differentiator positioning Nature as a "co-client," moving beyond sustainability toward regeneration and synergy.
- **Platform Technologies**: Cross-scale, hierarchical design tools that can be applied across multiple industries, creating a defensible IP moat.
- **First Mover in Biodegradable Materials**: The O° Shoe is a tangible proof point of their platform's capability, addressing the massive microplastics problem.

## Strategic Focus
- **Platform Development**: Scaling their platform technologies for broader industry application across multiple sectors.
- **Partnerships**: Leading corporate partners in implementing Nature-centric values across their operations (e.g., Goodman Group).
- **Product Commercialization**: Bringing the O° Shoe and other bio-integrated products to market.
- **Talent Acquisition**: Building a world-class interdisciplinary team of designers, engineers, scientists, and makers.
- **Thought Leadership**: Advancing the "Nature-centric design" philosophy as a new paradigm for the design and construction industries.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven Culture**: A clear, bold vision to heal the rift between Nature and humanity. Work is framed as a "calling" with profound impact.
- **Interdisciplinary Excellence**: Opportunity to work at the intersection of design, engineering, biology, and computation with a world-class team.
- **Creative & Intellectual Freedom**: Emphasis on taking risks, exploring "impossible" challenges, and pursuing profound questions.
- **Values**: The company culture emphasizes integrity, empathy, mediation of dichotomies (design/R&D, made/grown), balancing the timely and timeless, and pursuing the profound.
- **Work Environment**: Based in a first-of-its-kind atelier, workshop, and lab in New York City, designed by Foster + Partners.
- **Team Composition**: Small (~24 people), highly specialized team with backgrounds from MIT Media Lab, top universities, and leading design/tech firms. Emphasis on self-direction and collaboration across disciplines.
- **Location**: New York City (HQ) with presence in France. Hybrid/office policy not explicitly stated but likely in-person given the lab/workshop nature.

## Sources
1. [oxman.com](https://oxman.com/company)
2. [oxman.com](https://oxman.com/mission)
3. [oxman.com](https://oxman.com/careers)
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/oxman)
5. [prnewswire.com](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/oxman-unveils-the-o-shoe---a-100-biodegradable-shoe-made-without-petrochemicals-producing-zero-microplastics-302290648.html)
6. [prnewswire.com](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/neri-oxman-launches-oxman-a-revolutionary-practice-transforming-design-generation-manufacturing-and-construction-for-the-simultaneous-benefit-of-humans-and-the-natural-environment-302264818.html)
7. [fosterandpartners.com](https://www.fosterandpartners.com/news/foster-partners-and-neri-oxman-complete-the-groundbreaking-design-and-innovation-lab-for-oxman)
8. [goodman.com](https://www.goodman.com/news/2024/oxman-partnership)

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