Founder in Residence, Non-Transferrable Pesticides

Join as a Founder in Residence in Climate

We're on the lookout for entrepreneurial individuals with technical and commercial domain expertise with keen interest in founding, and building a global scale, impact driven, high growth company from ground up.

We are seeking applications from experienced industry, startup and/or new science or engineering based technology development professionals from anywhere in the world to work with us on

You'll work closely with the DSV team, using our methodology, to spin-out a new company. During the programme, you’ll work on all aspects related to venture creation in this opportunity area, including working out the optimal approach to solve for the desired outcome, building a team and building a viable business case. Once the new venture is incorporated with pre-seed investment from DSV, you and your co-founders will own the majority stake in the business and continue receiving support from the DSV team post-spinout.

The role is full-time, remote initially until venture incorporation and spin-out (circa summer/autumn 2026), location TBD.

About the Opportunity Area

Conventional pesticides—neonicotinoids, pyrethroids, atrazine, organochlorines, organophosphates, and carbamates—are a double-edged sword. They shield crops from pests but wreak havoc beyond their targets. Pollinators like bees and butterflies, vital to 75% of global food crops, are in freefall—some bee populations have declined by over 43% in high-pesticide regions due to lethal and sublethal exposures that impair navigation, immunity, and reproduction. This threatens global food security and biodiversity. Beyond ecosystems, these chemicals cause acute intoxication, cancer, neurodegeneration, infertility, and hormonal disruptions in humans, driven by oxidative stress, DNA damage, and systemic inflammation. The transferability of these pesticides—spreading through soil, water, and trophic chains—amplifies their devastation, making sustainable alternatives non-negotiable.

Non-transferable pesticides, such as pheromone-based and adhesive-based pest control strategies, offer innovative solutions for agricultural pest management by preventing the spread of harmful chemicals to non-target species. Pheromone-based approaches work by disrupting pest mating patterns, while insect glues or oils immobilize pests on contact. These methods are highly species-specific and can reduce collateral environmental damage. Advances in genetic engineering can further enhance these strategies by allowing plants to produce pheromones or adhesive substances themselves, providing a self-sustaining pest control system. However, these technologies face challenges such as cost, coverage limitations, and ensuring selectivity without affecting non-target species.

We imagine a future where pesticides protect crops without decimating pollinators, collapsing food chains, or endangering human health. This is the vision driving our venture creation in this opportunity space: to to halt ecological collapse and protect human health by reimagining pest control.

Our Approach

Our preliminary scoping of the area indicate high potential to develop approaches across the desired high-level outcomes:

• Creating competitive alternatives to conventional pesticides, ones that target pests precisely—think RNAi silencing pest genes, peptide-based solutions disrupting pest behaviour, or crops engineered to produce their own defenses, or similar;
• Developing advanced pest control solutions that combine the scalability of Bt crops with the evolutionary durability of pheromones/semiochemicals.

Requirements

Who We're Looking For

This isn’t just a job—it’s a chance to realise your own vision for venture creation in this space. We need a visionary founder to lead this charge—someone who's a problem-solver with a passion for this opportunity area, comfortable working across multiple scientific disciplines, with a track record that broadly covers most of the following criteria:

• Deep knowledge of plant-pest interactions or pesticide development (e.g. PhD or equivalent industry R&D know-how focused genomics, molecular biology, entomology, plant pathology, virology and/or bacteriology);

• In-depth knowledge of state-of-the-art (SOTA) technologies and constraints in at least one of the following areas: genetic engineering of crops, biopesticide production, or pest control mechanisms (e.g., Bt toxins, pheromones, semiochemicals) is a big plus;
• A proven track record of bringing new biotech solutions/products/ventures from concept to market, ideally in agriculture/agrochemical industry;
• Broad understanding of the agrochemical industry, farmer needs, navigating regulatory frameworks (e.g., EPA, EU pesticide standards) and experience in forging partnerships with agricultural stakeholders is a big plus;
• Experience in raising funds from early-stage investors/VC is a big plus;
• A relentless passion to protect pollinators, ecosystems, and human health, with the leadership to drive own vision for venture creation in this space.

Benefits

By joining DSV, you will be part of a team of operators who have founded companies and led the translation of science at some of the most respected universities, charities, funds, and government agencies. Here’s what we offer:

• Access to optimised, purpose-built, proprietary tools, resources, and processes to help create high-impact ventures from scratch;
• Opportunity area-specific know-how from our network of Partners and Advisors;
• Up to £250k in investment to incorporate the new venture and develop early proof-of-concept data;
• Guaranteed income of £4,166 per month paid as a fixed consultancy fee until the company is launched and the pre-seed investment is secured;
• Majority equity stake in the new company between  you and your co-founder(s);
• Continuous post-spinout support, including fundraising, commercial partnerships, recruitment, and team-building;
• Collaborative support from dozens of Founders currently at DSV across sectors.

About DSV

Deep Science Ventures (DSV) is on a mission to create a future in which both humans and the planet can thrive. We use our unique venture creation process to create, spin-out, and invest in science companies, combining available scientific knowledge and founder-type scientists into high-impact ventures. Operating in four sectors—Pharmaceuticals, Climate, Agriculture, and Computation—we tackle the challenges defining these areas by taking a first principles approach and partnering with leading institutions.