Operations Support Engineer

As an Operations Support Engineer, also known as a member of the Scientific Operations (SciOps) team, you will play a critical role in providing on-site technical support for both hardware and software systems. This support is essential for ensuring the seamless and timely execution of experiments within the lab. By enabling efficient lab operations, you will empower a diverse range of clients — including pharmaceutical companies, startups, and academic institutions — to conduct essential scientific research.

This role presents an exciting intellectual challenge, requiring strong problem-solving skills, scientific expertise, and the ability to troubleshoot technical issues at various levels of complexity. Successful team members will develop a comprehensive understanding of over 200 specialized instrument types available at Emerald, along with the core infrastructure that powers experimental workflows. To support your success, you'll receive in-depth training in the Wolfram Language and Emerald’s Symbolic Lab Language (SLL), equipping you with the skills to thrive in this fast-paced, technical environment.

We’re looking for individuals who are driven to transform the landscape of scientific research, ready to learn new skills, and eager to confront and resolve technical challenges. This is an opportunity to make a meaningful impact in advancing how science is performed.

Who You Are:

• 4 years of experience in a GxP or Life Sciences environment.
• Proficiency in applying rigorous deductive reasoning to solve ambiguous and complex issues that emerge during troubleshooting.
• Ability to work fixed, but non-traditional hours – including a specific night shift.
• You are a data driven individual with strong quantitative skills.
• Eagerness to learn programming and software development (prior experience is a plus, but not required).
• Extensive experience in troubleshooting scientific instrument hardware and software.
• Enthusiasm for learning a wide variety of instruments and techniques.
• Ability to thrive in a fast paced, laboratory operations environment.

As a Scientific Operations team member, you would …

• Apply critical thinking and problem-solving skills to address challenges encountered during experiment execution (software and instrumentation).
• Identify and resolve code bugs, software glitches, and instrumentation setup errors promptly and effectively.
• Collaborate extensively with cross functional teams to enhance the overall quality and performance of the cloud lab, fostering effective cross-functional teamwork.
• Continuously develop and maintain a deep understanding of the Wolfram Language and its application in interfacing between customers and the physical laboratory.
• Gain expertise in all experiments and instruments offered by Emerald, including familiarity with the associated software and hardware used in lab experiments.

You might resonate with the culture at ECL if ...

• You are passionate about science, technology, and medicine.
• You are impressively empathetic. You can argue the rationale you disagree with as convincingly as the one you agree with.
• You are intellectually fearless. Stretching yourself well out of your comfort zone across multiple disciplines is more the rule than the exception at Emerald.
• You are curious. When first-principles reasoning illuminates a path that diverges from the standard assumptions, you feel compelled to see where it leads.
• You have a keen interest in developing unique skills in an unconventional setting that traditional laboratories cannot provide.

$105,000 - $115,000 a year

Only Night shift available

About the CMU Cloud Lab and ECL:

https://cloudlab.cmu.edu/

The Carnegie Mellon Cloud Lab (CMU Cloud Lab) is the world's first academic Cloud Lab offering a 24/7/365 remote-access facility with over 200 scientific instruments.

Based on the concept pioneered by two CMU alumni through their company, Emerald Cloud Lab (ECL), the CMU Cloud Lab is located in Pittsburgh in the Bakery Square neighborhood in close proximity to CMU’s main campus. The Carnegie Mellon Cloud Lab is powered by the same software running ECL’s facility in Austin, TX, making all operations executable in either facility.

The CMU Cloud Lab provides researchers full control over laboratory processes, data inputs, outputs and sharing. All processes are fully traceable, end-to-end, and enhanced with auxiliary sensor data and sample/asset tracing, creating rich and comprehensive datasets that researchers can investigate and learn from using thousands of powerful functions for data visualization, analysis, and simulations.