Principal Engineer, Autonomous Lab Platforms

Genentech, Inc.; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 169,000 - 314,000; Full time

Job summary

Genentech, Inc. is seeking a Technical Lead for Lab Automation within Automation Science & Technology, owning the physical platform architecture for the Roche Autonomous Lab Accelerator.

You will coordinate with Project Leaders, SMEs, and Lab Operations to translate scientific workflows into scalable automation across robotics, instrumentation, and software interfaces. You will drive end-to-end delivery, design for unattended execution, and mentor engineers while ensuring robust, reproducible

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in engineering, computer science, life sciences, or related, with lab automation experience.
• Deep experience designing, programming, integrating, and deploying lab automation platforms (Hamilton, Tecan, Agilent, etc.).
• Strong Python and API-integration skills connecting instruments to schedulers, databases, and LIMS/ELN.
• Proven ownership of greenfield automation projects from architecture to deployment.
• Ability to lead through technical authority and mentor engineers in cross-functional settings.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end physical platform architecture for the accelerator lab.
• Translate scientific requirements into automatable unit operations and platform specs.
• Define interfaces between digital orchestration and physical execution.
• Lead selection, integration, commissioning, and verification of robotics and instruments.
• Engineer unattended execution with observability, recovery, and safe-stop behaviors.
• Provide technical leadership and reusable engineering standards across teams.

Skills

Python

API integration

Systems thinking

Mentorship

Education

Bachelor's or advanced degree in engineering or computer science

Tools

Hamilton

Tecan

Agilent

Robotic arms

Job description

Genentech, Inc. is seeking a Technical Lead for Lab Automation within Automation Science & Technology, owning the physical platform architecture for the Roche Autonomous Lab Accelerator.

You will coordinate with Project Leaders, SMEs, and Lab Operations to translate scientific workflows into scalable automation across robotics, instrumentation, and software interfaces. You will drive end-to-end delivery, design for unattended execution, and mentor engineers while ensuring robust, reproducible