Biotech Automation Engineer, CIVM & Organoid Systems

R&D Partners; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 69,000 - 76,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance – PPO, HMO & HSA

401k plan

Employee Assistance Program

Long-term disability

Weekly payroll

Online timecard approval

Job summary

R&D Partners is hiring an Automation Specialist for the CiS team in South San Francisco to design, develop, and automate CIVM culture and assays. You will work cross-functionally to scale workflows, integrate data, and maintain automation systems supporting discovery and preclinical efforts.

The role requires hands-on lab work, programming in Python/C#, and collaboration with vendors and software teams to implement best practices and metadata tracking with LIMS integration.

Qualifications

• PhD with 0-3 years of experience or Masters with 4-6 years of experience in biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, biomaterials, immunology, pharmacology, cellular or molecular biology, toxicology, pharmaceutical sciences.
• Must have experience in automation of cell culture in either academia, pharmaceutical/biotechnology industries, or contract research organizations.
• Direct experience translating lab experiments into automation-ready protocols that can run repeatedly at scale.
• Experience with automation and/or implementation of CIVMs is a plus.
• Experience operating, programming, and integrating automation instrumentation and peripherals including liquid handling platforms (e.g. Hamilton, Biomek, Opentron, BioTek washers).
• Experience with Python and/or C# and solving challenges systematically.

Responsibilities

• Pioneer automation of CIVM culture (organoids, iPSC models) and assays.
• Design, develop, operate, and maintain automated protocols and systems for cell culture and assay scale-up.
• Maintain instrumentation and perform QC of automated systems; collaborate with vendors, data engineers, and software developers for LIMS integration.
• Translate manual processes into automated workflows, including programming, testing, qualification and execution.
• Qualify and execute automated CIVM culture and assays on the integrated liquid handling system.
• Perform regular maintenance and dry tests to ensure readiness and sterility of automation platforms.
• Drive data management, analysis pipelines, and data automation with stakeholders.
• Train team members in Python development practices and AI tool integration for biology applications.
• Document processes using SOPs and share capabilities via presentations and lab tours.

Skills

Python

C#

Automation systems

LIMS integration

CIVMs automation

3D cell culture

Education

PhD

MS

Tools

Hamilton

Biomek

Opentrons

BioTek washers

Incubators

Centrifuges

Imagers

Job description

R&D Partners is hiring an Automation Specialist for the CiS team in South San Francisco to design, develop, and automate CIVM culture and assays. You will work cross-functionally to scale workflows, integrate data, and maintain automation systems supporting discovery and preclinical efforts.

The role requires hands-on lab work, programming in Python/C#, and collaboration with vendors and software teams to implement best practices and metadata tracking with LIMS integration.