Automation Scientist - AI-Driven Electron Diffraction Lab

California Institute of Technology; Pasadena (CA); On-site; USD 80,000 - 113,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Retirement savings plans

Generous paid time off

Tuition reimbursement

Onsite counseling and benefits

Job summary

California Institute of Technology in Pasadena seeks a scientist to design, build, and validate automated electron microscopy workflows for ELECTRA, a cloud-enabled node of the NSF PCL Test Bed. You will define protocols, calibration routines, and ensure trustworthy, remotely executed experiments across nodes.

Applicants should have a Ph.D. in a related field with research publications, and experience automating lab workflows.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in chemistry, materials science, structural biology, chemical engineering, physics, or a related field plus 1 year of related experience
• Publications record required
• Hands-on experience with a structural characterization method
• Experience automating laboratory workflows or running high-throughput experiments
• Proficiency in coding and data processing
• Strong collaboration and written communication skills with users at resource-limited institutions

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and validate automated and semi-autonomous electron microscopy and sample-preparation workflows
• Express experimental logic as reviewable protocols and machine-readable specifications, and establish acceptance criteria, calibration routines, validation standards, and recovery definitions
• Analyze and interpret experimental datasets, and curate high-quality datasets to inform workflow design and AI-driven experiment design
• Collaborate with the team to translate experimental logic into instrument-control routines, scheduling constraints, and user-facing interfaces
• Provide expert technical support to onboarded users, on-site and remote
• Contribute to recruitment and onboarding workshops, user documentation, and facility tours; mentor students and junior staff; and contribute to publications and technical reports

Skills

Coding and data processing

Collaboration and written comms

Automating laboratory workflows

High-throughput experimentation

Publications track record

Education

Ph.D. in related field

Master's +3 years experience

Tools

XDS

DIALS

CCP4

PHENIX

SHELX

Job description

California Institute of Technology in Pasadena seeks a scientist to design, build, and validate automated electron microscopy workflows for ELECTRA, a cloud-enabled node of the NSF PCL Test Bed. You will define protocols, calibration routines, and ensure trustworthy, remotely executed experiments across nodes.

Applicants should have a Ph.D. in a related field with research publications, and experience automating lab workflows.