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Automation Engineer, Biopharmaceutical

The successful candidate will work very closely with the Executive Director of Discovery Science and Technology, members of the biopharma platform team, as well as other scientific and technology groups across the company. As the first automation engineer within the biopharma platform team, the candidate will be a primary stakeholder in defining the framework and long-term vision of automation in the biopharma platform team. The Automation Engineer will conceptualize, design, build and deploy robotic systems to enable high-throughput screening in proprietary 3D models (MOS) for the Biopharma Platform team. The candidate will develop a broad portfolio of screening modules such as high content imaging, flow cytometry, proteomics, and genomics to enable in depth utilization of complex models. Through collaboration across multiple teams, the Automation engineer will improve process efficiency, robotic performance, assay reproducibility, labor and reagent costs, implement new assays, and generally ensure the realization of the full potential of our core technologies in drug discovery. In collaboration with the Executive Director, the candidate will diligently quantify the performance of the various operational aspects of the biopharma platform, and collectively prioritize the various activities to maximize the benefits to the team and company. The candidate will enable early choices of hardware, including liquid handlers, automated freezers, robotics arms, imagers, etc. The successful candidate will contribute hands-on to the rapid and exciting development of technological capabilities at the company. Additionally, the candidate will ensure adequate documentation for a regulated business and operational environment. Finally, the successful engineer will evangelize the capabilities of the automated platform and drive its use across the company, serving as a teacher, troubleshooter, support engineer, and overall owner of the automated systems.

The candidate will:

• Design, order, build, qualify, implement and improve modern robotics solutions optimized for high-throughput screening of MOS 3D models while simultaneously leveraging the characteristics of laboratory automation to improve the quality and fidelity of the data being acquired
• Brainstorm solutions, like custom, build, technology purchases, co-development partnerships, or other means to maximize the value of 3D biology in accelerated drug discovery through higher throughput, higher quality, and fidelity data, and more reproducible results
• Source devices, software solutions, labware, reagents, and other solutions to improve the full stack of processes from biological sample preprocessing
• Deeply understand the sample processing pipeline and serve as an automation subject matter expert with R&D, engineering, and partnering groups to ensure effective cross-functional prioritization and alignment to deliver high-quality products for the biopharma platform
• Characterize and quantify the quality and efficiency of Xilis' biopharma platform as a whole, and of each process step individually through prioritizing, devising, and implementing improvements
• Develop technologies necessary to ensure the company's sample processing capacity matches the company's drug discovery campaign needs
• Write documentation to ensure regulatory standards are met, and operators can safely and optimally operate the processes and solutions developed
• Help with troubleshooting of laboratory issues as quickly as possible
• Share thoughts and ideas on how to improve company performance
• Perform support tasks across the company as needs arise

The ideal candidate should have:

• A degree in biomedical engineering, bioengineering, mechanical engineering, process engineering, industrial engineering, biological sciences, or equivalent, and 5+ years of experience in developing and supporting high-throughput automated systems
• An outstanding understanding, awareness, and motivation to develop and support scalable technologies whose ultimate goal is to care for cancer patients
• Experience building, improving, and/or maintaining complex automated solutions inclusive of robotic arms and scheduling software
• Experience with developing workflows in support of complex drug discovery campaigns is a strong plus
• Experience in cell culture laboratories, especially 3D models is a strong plus as well as diagnostics and process engineering
• A proven track record in personally and quantifiably improving laboratory process performance
• An eagerness to continuously contribute to the development of our technology capabilities
• An interest and experience in a breadth of technologies is a strong plus (devices, microfluidics, biology, process, software, hardware, etc.)
• An inquisitive and quantitative mind to find areas of improvement, devise strategies to measure key performance indicators, and independently come up with avenues for improvements
• Experience as the accountable individual for software and diagnostic product launch is desirable
• Experience in regulated environments (FDA, GxP, CLIA, CAP) is desirable