Good Morning Future another day another job opening at MC Nutraceuticals!
We are looking for an expert HPLC Operator in the cannabinoid space although with our research on how cannabinoids are tested on HPLC that is not required.
Problem we currently have:
Most analytical chemist in third party testing are extremely stuck in their ways on analytical testing with the separation of these cannabinoids. So understanding the problems and being able to adapt to fix them is the #1 thing we are looking for. 95% of Analytical labs can not separate Delta 8 THC, Delta 9 THC and the other 3-5 isomers that are made. We must get clean separation, identification, and quantification of this specific example which will continue to be a problem with many of our other compounds that we create.
Skills Required:
Ability to maintain, build, and use used HPLC equipment
Ability to understand the co-elution of cannabinoids and separation cannabinoids
Degree in Organic Chemistry and or Synthetic Chemistry
2-5 Years in HPLC operating experience
Eagerness to learn
Ability to Manage employees
Ability to maintain 3rd party testing requirements
Ability to build SOPs for GMP requirements
Ability to do custom formulations with large scale reactors
Nice to haves (these will determine where you lie on the salary range):
Ability to maintain, build, and use used GCMS equipment
Masters in Chemistry or PHD
R&D support for synthesis of hemp derived cannabinoids
Pass a GMP audit and ISO audit, without outside help
Develop / perfect separation issues with HPLC equipment
Read NMR Data
Background Experience in testing pesticides
Background Experience in testing water
Included: Benefits and catered lunch everyday
Future Promotions include:
Director of Chemistry - within 1 year - Salary 80-100k
Chief Innovation Officer - within 2 years - 100-150k
You should be able to get a used LCMSMS for cheap (<100K). A used GCMS under 70K. Your HPLC + either LCMS or GCMS should provide enough information to quantify what you need. Routine QC labs are built for speed and volume. Not for special requests from clients, unless they are a contract lab that specialize in such. Most labs don’t want extended runs or running 2 methods for quantifying minor values (<5 %), which is probably needed when looking for separating all of these isomers. Most analytical methods are developed around a certain matrix with a somewhat known chemical fingerprint and concentration. It is almost impossible to quantify, accurately, all cannabinoids present within a concentrate sample in 1 sample prep (dilution included) with 1 instrument using 1 method. Something will suffer and be misquantified or misidentified.
And no doubt that most companies can outpace most analytical labs when it comes to development. It’s difficult for labs to predict where the market is headed and what kind of taste it desires. Vitamin E acetate comes to mind. By the time most labs knew what was causing the sickness and developed a method to test for it, the industry had moved on from it. And there was no market for that test.
I don’t know why I keep typing things you already know, maybe it’s the coffee…
Like someone else said, analytical labs are businesses that rely on routine volume testing. They are not as likely to spend the money to develop methods for testing for obscure cannabinoids that don’t have market share of interest. Also, if they seem stuck in their ways, remeber that testing labs need to validate methods. This is very important and essentially keeps them from continuously making little tweaks here and there to the method. Plug and chug is not the way regulated testing labs operate.
