Senior Automation Engineer

About Telesis Bio:

Telesis Bio is empowering researchers to accelerate the creation of novel synthetic biology solutions to address some of humanity’s greatest challenges. With our breakthrough automation solutions for biological synthesis, we enable rapid, accurate, and reproducible writing of DNA and mRNA for wide-ranging biological applications.

Around the world, innovators are leveraging Telesis Bio's technology to overcome current bottlenecks in synthetic biology workflows and advance the discovery of cutting-edge solutions for health and technology. We are proud of our growing collaborations with partners that include premier academic research institutions, emerging start-ups to nearly all Top 25 Biopharma companies. Telesis Bio is honored to play a part in several pioneering advances of our customers and collaborators ranging from novel infectious disease vaccines, precision immunotherapy for cancer and antibody therapeutics to creation of engineered meat substitutes and sustainable cellular agricultural products.

Position Overview:

We are seeking a highly skilled and detail-oriented and experienced life science Senior Automation Engineer who specializes in requirements gathering, process characterization, and optimization of molecular biology workflows. This role will be pivotal in understanding specific process needs and applying them to designing scalable automation solutions, ensuring the delivery of systems that drive efficiency and consistency.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Requirements Gathering: Engage with stakeholders, including scientists, customers, and commercial teams to understand and document detailed process needs and constraints.
• Characterize Molecular Biology workflows: Understand and optimize the intricacies and variables of molecular biology processes.
• Optimize Automated Systems: Design and refine automation solutions that can be traced to gathered requirements and characterized processes.
• Advanced Data Analytics: Collect and analyze data from automation platforms to gain insights into process behavior and variability.
• Statistical Analysis: Apply statistical tools and methods to validate process consistency, reproducibility, and robustness.
• Collaboration: Act as a bridge between technical teams and non-technical stakeholders, ensuring that automation solutions are aligned with overall objectives and scientific principles.
• Scale-Up Support: Assist in the scale-up of processes from lab to production scale, ensuring continuity in requirements and that solutions maintain quality at larger scales.
• Continuous Improvement: Regularly review automated processes, seeking feedback from users, and implementing incremental improvements.
• Training & Support: Train staff on optimized processes and provide troubleshooting support.
• Documentation: Maintain detailed documentation of gathered requirements, process characterization results, optimization steps, and final optimized processes that culminate in a suite of tests designed to satisfy IOPQ procedures.
• Vendor Collaboration: Engage with equipment and software vendors to ensure solutions meet the gathered requirements and can be effectively integrated into the existing infrastructure.
• All other duties as assigned or necessary

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree with 7 years of experience, OR equivalent experience in automating molecular biology workflows.
• Proven experience in requirements gathering, preferably in a life science or biotech setting.
• Power user of various automation platforms such as Beckman i-Series, Echo acoustic liquid handlers, Tecan Fluent and Hamilton Microlab systems.
• Applied experience with assay workstations with integrated devices such as Cobots, thermal storage, and thermal cyclers all controlled by scheduling software.
• Strong programming and automation software skills, including interleaving of processes and runtime data decision making.
• Strong background in process characterization and optimization best practices.
• Demonstrated technical project management skills including workflow diagrams, Gantt charts, risk registers, requirements trace matrices, drafting test plans and other project-specific artifacts.
• Familiarity with Design of Experiments (DoE) principles.
• Knowledge of Quality by Design (QbD) and Process Analytical Technology (PAT) principles.
• Proficiency with statistical tools and methods pertinent to process optimization, such as JMP.
• Ability to effectively communicate and translate requirements between technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proficiency in reading and interpreting engineering drawings, schematics, and technical documentation.
• Highly adaptable and independent, and able to thrive in a start-up environment.
• Experience with PLC-based automation (Rockwell, Siemens) is a plus.