Field Applications Scientist - Minneapolis

Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) is seeking a highly driven Field Applications Scientist (FAS) to join our Technical Services team based in Minneapolis. Reporting to the Technical Services Manager, you will work closely with customers, prospective clients, and key opinion leaders to provide technical expertise, consultancy, and representation for ONT products—ensuring successful adoption and application in customer research.

This is a highly technical, customer-facing role spanning pre-sales support (presentations, seminars, technical calls) through post-sales adoption (onboarding, experimental design, software use, and data analysis). The ideal candidate combines strong lab and scientific depth with excellent communication, troubleshooting, and customer management skills.

What You’ll Do

• Partner with Sales: Provide technical expertise to customers and prospective customers, communicating ONT applications clearly and credibly.
• Deliver pre-sales support: Support the full sales cycle through consultations, scientific presentations, and technical discussions.
• Run seminars and events: Organize and deliver seminars, exhibitions, and on-site activities at key accounts and industry congresses within your territory.
• Drive successful adoption: Manage key customer relationships from a technical perspective to ensure effective implementation and sustained use of ONT products.
• Plan strategic engagement: Develop and execute communication and visit plans for strategic accounts, aligned to project milestones, support needs, and business priorities.
• Maintain CRM rigor: Capture accurate records of customer interactions, technical discussions, actions, and outcomes in ONT’s CRM.
• Provide feedback loops: Deliver structured customer, strategic, and competitive feedback to internal teams to inform product, workflow, and commercial improvements.

What We’re Looking For

• A customer-centric scientist who enjoys being the technical face of the company and owns outcomes for customers.
• A strong communicator who can translate complex science into clear guidance for diverse scientific audiences.
• A confident presenter who can support commercial conversations without losing scientific credibility.
• A structured operator who can manage multiple accounts, travel frequently, and maintain excellent CRM discipline.
• A proactive problem-solver who thrives in fast-paced, field-based environments.

What You Bring Required Qualifications

• PhD in Life Sciences or equivalent commercial experience in a customer-facing technical support role.
• Strong hands-on lab expertise with deep knowledge in genetics, molecular biology, cell biology, or related disciplines.
• Proven experience in experimental design, including sample preparation methodologies and downstream data analysis.
• Ability to understand and explain theory, techniques, and results to scientific audiences.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with a professional, customer-focused approach.
• Confident presenter with experience delivering scientific presentations, training, or teaching.
• Strong troubleshooting capability with scientific writing/editing skills.
• Competency with Microsoft Office tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Commercial experience in life-science tools, genomics, or sequencing technologies.
• Strong customer-facing problem-solving and troubleshooting skills.
• Experience delivering trainings, workshops, or product demonstrations.
• Experience partnering closely with Sales to support account strategy and customer success.
• Familiarity with CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce).

The salary for this role is between $101,000 and $139,000 USD. The salary offered will reflect the skills and experience of the candidate.  

Certain roles within ONT are eligible for annual bonus and stock. These awards are allocated based on individual performance.  

Employees based in the US have the option to choose healthcare benefits, participate in the company 401(k) plan and company match, we also offer short-term and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, and commuter benefits to name a few. 

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We select and employ candidates only in accordance with their merits, qualifications, and abilities to perform the duties of the job regardless of gender, marital status, race, religion, color, age, disability, sexual orientation, military or veteran status. If you require an accommodation to complete the application or interview process, please contact human.resources@nanoporetech.com  

Company

Develops portable nanopore-based DNA and RNA sequencing devices.