BioFoundry Automation Specialist: Microbial Tech

UC Santa Barbara; California; On-site; USD 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

UC Santa Barbara’s NSF ExFAB BioFoundry seeks an Automation Specialist to collaborate with users—academics, industry and national labs—in developing and performing automated experiments that advance biotechnologies from unusual microbes.

The role focuses on programming, testing, and optimizing ExFAB’s integrated automation platforms, many in anaerobic enclosures, and aims to publish protocols and workflows for the broader community.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in CS, Biological Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, ECE or related field with 3–5 years of relevant experience; or Master’s with 1+ year of relevant experience (automation, computation).
• Experience in programming, testing, and optimizing automated systems.
• Ability to interface with internal/external users and lead experiments.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with ExFAB users to develop and perform research experiments using automated workflows.
• Lead programming, testing, and optimization of ExFAB’s integrated automation platforms in anaerobic enclosures.
• Represent ExFAB at academic conferences and contribute to published protocols and workflow developments.

Skills

Programming

Automation

Collaboration

Experiment design

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS, Biological Sciences, Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, or related field

Master's degree in a relevant field

Tools

Automation platforms

Anaerobic chamber

Nucleic acid assays

Microbial transformation

Job description

UC Santa Barbara’s NSF ExFAB BioFoundry seeks an Automation Specialist to collaborate with users—academics, industry and national labs—in developing and performing automated experiments that advance biotechnologies from unusual microbes.

The role focuses on programming, testing, and optimizing ExFAB’s integrated automation platforms, many in anaerobic enclosures, and aims to publish protocols and workflows for the broader community.