Autonomous Lab Automation Engineer

QuantumCell; South San Francisco (CA); Sur place; USD 120 000 - 170 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

QuantumCell is seeking a Lab Software Engineer to build the software layer powering our automated workcells. You will create automation control and scheduling tools, develop device drivers, and integrate instrument data into our pipelines.

This hands-on role spans low-level instrument communication, orchestration of multi-day workflows, and data pipelines that enable AI-driven decisions in neuroscience drug discovery.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in CS/Software Eng/Bioengineering or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 3+ years of professional software development experience with strong Python skills.
• Experience controlling hardware or communicating with devices over serial, TCP/IP, gRPC, REST, or vendor SDKs.
• Experience building reliable, long-running services using asynchronous or event-driven programming.
• Experience designing data models, relational databases, and APIs.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to translate lab workflows into software requirements.

Responsabilités

• Design, build, and maintain automation control and scheduling software that coordinates liquid handlers, robotic arms, incubators, centrifuges, and imagers.
• Develop orchestration logic for multi-instrument, multi-day workflows, including event handling, error recovery, and resource and labware tracking.
• Orchestrate multi-day workflows end to end, building scheduling logic that plans around protocol constraints such as incubation windows and hold times to prioritize samples and keep time-sensitive runs on schedule.
• Extend and integrate vendor control software and open-source frameworks to fill gaps in commercial scheduling tools.
• Build operator-facing tools for run setup, monitoring, alerting, and status reporting, and support troubleshooting on the lab floor.
• Develop device drivers and software interfaces for laboratory instruments, including devices without existing vendor or open-source support.
• Implement standards-based interfaces such as SiLA2 so every instrument can be controlled consistently by a central orchestrator.
• Build simulation and test harnesses to validate drivers and workflows before running on hardware.
• Build scalable pipelines to capture, parse, and process data from high- and low-throughput experiments, including imaging and mass spectrometry.
• Collaborate with computational and experimental teams to define data models and schemas for samples, labware, runs, and results.
• Develop APIs and tools that aggregate instrument data for analysis, visualization, and machine learning.
• Support the configuration and integration of our LIMS and ELN systems with workcell software.

Connaissances

Python

Device control

Asynchronous programming

API design

Software development

Formation

CS/Software Eng or related field

Outils

SiLA2

Benchling

Green Button Go

Hamilton/Tecan/Beckman instrumentation

Description du poste

QuantumCell is seeking a Lab Software Engineer to build the software layer powering our automated workcells. You will create automation control and scheduling tools, develop device drivers, and integrate instrument data into our pipelines.

This hands-on role spans low-level instrument communication, orchestration of multi-day workflows, and data pipelines that enable AI-driven decisions in neuroscience drug discovery.