Automation Scientist Intern, RAC Operations

Ginkgo Bioworks; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 38,000 - 54,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock awards

Medical coverage

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

401(k)

Paid time off

Job summary

Ginkgo Bioworks in Boston, MA is seeking an Automation Scientist Intern to be the hands-on force behind our RAC fleet, learning to operate, troubleshoot, and analyze protocol runs on cutting-edge lab automation hardware.

You will master the RAC platform, learn biology workflows, and help advance to writing new protocols for autonomous operation, while collaborating with a multidisciplinary team in a fast-paced lab environment.

Qualifications

• Recent graduate or expected 2026/2027 in CS/Bioengineering/Computational Biology/Bioinformatics
• Engineers with computational skills and interest in biology welcome
• Automation-forward mindset and willingness to learn biology

Responsibilities

• Learn to load, operate, and troubleshoot RAC protocol runs
• Queue and monitor programmatically generated protocols and analyze data
• Gain experience in molecular biology workflows and experimental design

Skills

Automation mindset

Willingness to learn biology

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Bioengineering, Computational Biology, or Bioinformatics

Job description

Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe’s growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our bioengineers make use of an in-house automated foundry for designing and building new organisms.

The role is based out of Ginkgo’s Boston, MA location and requires regular in‑person attendance.

About the Role

Ginkgo Bioworks is deploying a massive fleet of Reconfigurable Automation Carts (RACs)—modular, mobile robotic units that snap together like LEGOs to form an autonomous lab. We are looking for an Automation Scientist Intern to be the hands‑on force behind this fleet. You will learn how to load, operate, take down, analyze and troubleshoot protocol runs on the most advanced lab automation hardware in the world, pushing our "Nebula" frontier lab towards autonomous operation.

Responsibilities

Master the RAC Platform: Learn to operate and maintain a system of Reconfigurable Automation Carts, designed to support a variety of molecular and cell biology scientific workflows. You will queue and submit programmatically‑generated protocols, monitor execution of your protocol runs, and retrieve and analyze protocol run data. Over time, you will advance to modifying or writing new protocols for our autonomous lab.

Learn Biology: You will prepare and onboard reagents and consumables for upcoming molecular and cell biology scientific workflows, execute such workflows, and take down and offboard used plates from completed workflows. In the process, you will learn how to do scientifically rigorous experimental design, execution and data analysis as well as how to optimize scientific workflows for running on RAC automation.

Preferred Qualifications

Recent graduate (BS/MS) or expected 2026 or H1 2027 graduation date in Computer Science, Bioengineering, Computational Biology, or Bioinformatics. Chemical, Mechanical or Electrical Engineers with computational skills and a strong interest in learning biology are also welcome.

"Automation-forward" mindset: you love working with lab automation and making robotic systems run smoother.

Willingness to do whatever it takes to ensure that existing and new scientific workflows run successfully on our RAC automation system.

Bonus (not required)

Interest in communications, marketing, social media, and/or short form video.

The base salary range for this role is $37,700-$53,500. Actual pay within this range will depend on a candidate's skills, expertise, and experience. We also offer company stock awards, a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental & vision coverage, health spending accounts, voluntary benefits, leave of absence policies, 401(k) program with employer contribution, 8 paid holidays in addition to a full‑week winter shutdown and unlimited Paid Time Off policy.

Ginkgo has implemented a return to office policy effective October 1, 2025 with required in‑office days 5x per week.This policy applies to all employees who live within 50 miles of Ginkgo’s offices in Boston, MA, Emeryville, CA and West Sacramento, CA.

It is the policy of Ginkgo Bioworks to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees, employment applicants, and EOE disability/vet.

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