Associate Director, Lab Automation & Digital Enablement

Charles River Laboratories; Reno (NV); On-site; USD 150,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

bonus/incentives based on performance

401K

paid time off

stock purchase program

Health and wellness coverage

employee and family wellbeing support

work life balance flexibility

Job summary

Charles River Laboratories’ Safety Assessment site in Reno, NV seeks an Associate Director, Lab Automation & Digital Enablement to lead the automation roadmap and digital solutions across laboratory workflows. You will drive automation projects, enable data-driven decisions, and partner with scientists, QA, and operations to improve throughput in GLP environments.

The role requires 8–10 years in life sciences with hands-on experience in automation, data integration, and scripting.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a scientific/engineering/automation/computer science/data science or related technical discipline.
• 8–10 years of relevant pharma/biotech/CRO life sciences experience; lab automation/data automation/integration experience required.
• Experience in GLP environments, staff leadership, and client-facing technical interactions.
• No specific certification/licensure required.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the site strategy and roadmap for laboratory automation and digital solutions.
• Evaluate workflows and prioritize automation opportunities based on volume, effort, ROI, and quality risk.
• Lead design, development, deployment, qualification, and lifecycle management of automation apps and workflows.
• Develop scripts, interfaces, and utilities to automate lab processes and improve throughput and data integrity.
• Create digital solutions to automate data capture, transfer, transformation, review, and reporting across workflows.
• Develop and monitor KPI/metrics for lab performance including capacity, productivity, and quality.
• Partner with scientists, operations, QA, and other stakeholders to integrate instruments and data systems in GLP.
• Provide training to staff to expand use of automation and digital solutions.
• Assess site-developed solutions for broader applicability and scalable deployment.

Skills

Laboratory automation

Data integration

Automation scripting

Workflow development

Education

Bachelor’s degree in scientific/engineering/automation/computer science/data science

Tools

LIMS/ELN/SDMS

APIs

Data pipelines

Instrumentation interfaces

Job description

For 75 years, Charles River employees have worked together to assist in the discovery, development and safe manufacture of new drug therapies. When you join our family, you will have a significant impact on the health and well-being of people across the globe. Whether your background is in life sciences, finance, IT, sales or another area, your skills will play an important role in the work we perform. In return, we’ll help you build a career that you can feel passionate about.

Job Description

We are seeking an Associate Director, Lab Automation & Digital Enablement for our Safety Assessment site located in Reno, NV.

• Develop and execute the site strategy and roadmap for laboratory automation and digital solutions.
• Evaluate laboratory workflows and identify, assess, and prioritize automation opportunities based on study/sample volume, manual effort, cycle time, quality risk, scalability, business impact, and expected return on investment.
• Lead the design, development, implementation, qualification, deployment, and lifecycle management of laboratory automation applications and integrated workflows.
• Develop and/or oversee scripts, interfaces, software utilities, and workflow solutions that automate laboratory processes and improve efficiency, consistency, throughput, and scientific execution.
• Develop digital solutions that automate data capture, transfer, transformation, review, reporting, and integration across laboratory workflows.
• Develop and monitor KPI/Metrics for lab performance reporting. This can include but not limited to capacity, productivity, and quality.
• Partners with laboratory scientists, operations, global tech, quality assurance (QA), and other stakeholders to integrate laboratory instruments, applications, and data systems in a GLP environment.
• Direct or support training for laboratory scientists, operations, global tech, quality assurance (QA), and other stakeholders to encourage and expand use of automation and digital solutions.
• Evaluate site-developed automation and digital solutions for broader applicability and design reusable, scalable approaches that can support both site-level and global deployment.
• Develop roadmaps, requirements, resource plans, implementation milestones, risk assessments, business cases, and success measures for automation and digital initiatives.
• Manage and prioritize the automation and digital project portfolio, allocating resources toward high-value initiatives and tracking realized operational and business benefits.
• Ensure automation and digital solutions are developed and maintained in accordance with applicable GLP requirements, data integrity expectations, validation or qualification requirements, change control, and company procedures.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in scientific, engineering, automation, computer science, data science, or related technical discipline
• Experience: Minimum of 8-10 years of relevant experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, CRO, or related life sciences industry. Experience with laboratory automation, data automation/integration, or scientific systems required. Experience working in a GLP environment, managing staff, and participating in client-facing technical interactions required. Demonstrated knowledge of large molecule bioanalysis and ligand binding assay (LBA) laboratory workflows preferred.
• An equivalent combination of education and experience may be accepted as a satisfactory substitute for the specific education and experience listed above.
• Certification/Licensure: No specific certification or licensure required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands-on experience supporting high-throughput large bioanalytical and LBA laboratory workflows.
• Experience with robotic liquid-handling platforms, integrated laboratory automation, instrument interfaces, and automation scripting or application development.
• Experience with laboratory data integration, LIMS/ELN/SDMS, APIs, data pipelines, or related scientific informatics technologies.
• Experience developing business cases and ROI assessments for laboratory technology investments and deploying solutions across multiple laboratories, sites, or global teams.

The base pay range for this position is between $150,000-$170,000. Please note that salaries vary within the range based on factors including, but not limited to, experience, skills, education, certifications, and location.

About Safety Assessment

Charles River is committed to helping our partners expedite their preclinical drug development with exceptional safety assessment services, state-of-the-art facilities and expert regulatory guidance. From individual specialty toxicology and IND enabling studies to tailored packages and total laboratory support, our deeply experienced team can design and execute programs that anticipate challenges and avoid roadblocks for a smooth, efficient journey to market. Each year approximately 300 investigational new drug (IND) programs are conducted in our Safety Assessment facilities.

About Charles River

Charles River is an early-stage contract research organization (CRO). We have built upon our foundation of laboratory animal medicine and science to develop a diverse portfolio of discovery and safety assessment services, both Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and non-GLP, to support clients from target identification through preclinical development. Charles River also provides a suite of products and services to support our clients’ clinical laboratory testing needs and manufacturing activities. Utilizing this broad portfolio of products and services enables our clients to create a more flexible drug development model, which reduces their costs, enhances their productivity and effectiveness to increase speed to market. With over 20,000 employees within 110 facilities in over 20 countries around the globe, we are strategically positioned to coordinate worldwide resources and apply multidisciplinary perspectives in resolving our client’s unique challenges. Our client base includes global pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies, government agencies and hospitals and academic institutions around the world. At Charles River, we are passionate about our role in improving the quality of people’s lives. Our mission, our excellent science and our strong sense of purpose guide us in all that we do, and we approach each day with the knowledge that our work helps to improve the health and well-being of many across the globe. We have proudly worked on 80% of the drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the past five years.

• bonus/incentives based on performance
• 401K
• paid time off
• stock purchase program
• Health and wellness coverage
• employee and family wellbeing support programs
• work life balance flexibility

Equal Employment Opportunity

Charles River is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, mental or physical disability, family status, pregnancy, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

It is unlawful in some states (including Massachusetts) to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

If you are interested in applying to Charles River Laboratories and need special assistance or an accommodation due to a disability to complete any forms or to otherwise participate in the resume submission process, please contact a member of our Human Resources team by sending an e-mail message to [e-mail]. This contact is for accommodation requests for individuals with disabilities only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.

For more information, please visit www.criver.com.

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