Indigo is a company dedicated to harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet. With a vision of creating a world where farming is an economically desirable and accessible profession, Indigo works alongside its growers to apply natural approaches, conserve resources for future generations, and grow healthy food for all. Indigo’s Biological Products, Marketplace, and Carbon offerings improve grower profitability, environmental sustainability, and consumer health. Indigo Marketplace is a platform connecting growers with a network of buyers to secure optimal prices for their crops and offers hands-on control of a grower’s business through a range of pricing tools, real-time national bid discovery, and automated grain sales. Indigo Carbon, is a platform paying growers for increases in soil carbon content and decreases in greenhouse gas emissions. It helps growers realize additional revenue, healthier soils, and a more resilient farm by participation in a market of high-quality carbon credits – supported by rigorous quantification standards. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA, with additional offices in Memphis, TN, Research Triangle Park, NC, Basel, Switzerland, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and São Paulo, Brazil.

Indigo’s Biological Products organization develops products based upon our deep understanding of the plant microbiome. The company has commercialized such products for cotton, wheat, barley, corn, soybeans, and rice in North America, Latin America, and Europe under the biotrinsic™ brand. Our R&D and product development teams are working to continue to develop products that address the growing number of abiotic and biotic stresses that crops experience worldwide.

Indigo is seeking an energetic person to join our team and help in the development of micro-organism based agricultural products that improve stress tolerance and crop yield using organisms isolated from the plant microbiome.  The Intern Formulations will assist in the development of stable and robust seed coating formulations containing living organisms for a variety of crops.  The candidate should possess a general understanding of microbiology and chemistry and be able to apply their knowledge to industrial problems.  The Intern Formulations is a laboratory-based position and will work in collaboration with other scientists and engineers to carry out their work.  The candidate will be a part of the Formulations group focused on the development of commercially scalable and cost-effective microbial formulations that can be brought from the lab to commercial use. 

The Intern Formulations is a full-time position that will last approximately 6 months starting in January 2022 and ending in June 2022.  The specific timing can be flexible depending on the candidate’s schedule. 

The candidate should be enrolled in a bachelor’s level program in the area of microbiology, biology, chemistry, biochemistry, crop sciences, chemical engineering, or a related field.  Experience with microbial stabilization or agricultural seed applied products is a plus.    

The ideal candidate for the Intern Formulations will be knowledgeable and has practical experience in the following areas:

• Basic microbiology and aseptic technique
• Wet chemistry skills including preparation of buffers, media, or multi-component formulations
• Mechanical aptitude and comfortable operating lab scale equipment

The candidate should also possess the following qualities:

• Ability to work in a diverse, fast paced, start-up environment
• Flexibility and acceptance of change
• Keen interest in understanding complex chemical and biological systems
• Observant with a strong attention to detail
• Perform laboratory work in a clean and safe manner
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Understand and embody our purpose & core values

• Excited by Indigo’s mission; believes that Indigo can fundamentally change the agriculture industry; can clearly articulate passion for our mission and values
• Optimistic and innovative; solution-oriented; shows no signs of cynicism
• Will be widely viewed as someone who personifies our core values, is committed to them, and leans on them when making decisions. Specifically:
  • Demonstrates a track record of high integrity - doing the right thing, owning mistakes, conducting oneself honestly
  • Values, communicates and interacts with others with high levels of transparency and respect
• Collaborates well across functions; creates an inspiring and collegial work environment

We’re building the technology to feed the world and fight climate change. We believe that through teamwork we can achieve more to benefit all of agriculture: from farmers to consumers to the planet. Game changers don't fit in a box. The requirements listed above are examples of what we think enables success in this role, but we recognize the impossibility of fully capturing a singularly perfect description, and we believe in the power of diversified and creative displays of skills and qualifications. We embrace unconventional. We embrace creativity. We embrace a challenge to the status quo. If the specifications in the list below aren’t an exact match... great! Apply, be you, and be proud that you aren’t ordinary (we certainly aren’t!).

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status