Senior Automation Service Engineer

Guardant Health, Inc.; Redwood City (CA); Hybrid; USD 127,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Job summary

Guardant Health, Inc. is seeking a Senior Automation Service Engineer to lead laboratory service and support across multiple locations, including Redwood City. The role covers installation, qualifications, maintenance, and troubleshooting of complex automation systems in a regulated environment.

You will mentor team members, drive continuous improvement, and collaborate across departments to ensure high-quality service delivery and instrument reliability in a hybrid work model.

Qualifications

• BS degree in engineering or scientific discipline, or equivalent
• 5–8+ years of relevant service/support experience
• Strong knowledge of CLIA, GMP, and regulated environments
• Experience with Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma methodologies
• Demonstrated experience driving process standardization and scalability
• Experience with lab automation systems and instrument support
• Ability to travel up to 20%

Responsibilities

• Perform installation and IQOQ, monthly/semi‑annual/annual preventive maintenance, troubleshooting and repair
• Own instrument uptime by resolving service requests and assisting teammates
• Perform expert-level troubleshooting of automation systems and laboratory instrumentation
• Serve as a subject matter expert for laboratory automation systems
• Lead root cause investigations and implement corrective actions
• Maintain accurate service documentation in compliance with quality systems
• Analyze equipment performance trends and implement scalable solutions
• Develop and improve SOPs, checklists, and service documentation
• Drive enhancements to maintenance and calibration processes for scalability
• Provide tier1 support to laboratory end-users
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to deploy lab deployments and scale-up
• Mentor Automation Service Engineers and staff from other departments
• Support audits and regulatory inspections as needed
• Participate in an on-call rotation for after-hours support

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Lean Manufacturing

Six Sigma

Root cause analysis

Automation troubleshooting

Customer service

Education

BS in engineering or sciences

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Hamilton liquid handlers

Qiagen QiaSymphony

Agilent TapeStation

Illumina sequencers

Laboratory automation systems

Job description

Guardant Health is a leading precision oncology company focused on guarding wellness and giving every person more time free from cancer. Founded in 2012, Guardant® is transforming patient care and accelerating new cancer therapies by providing critical insights into what drives disease through its advanced blood and tissue tests, real-world data and AI analytics. Guardant tests help improve outcomes across all stages of care, including screening to find cancer early, monitoring for recurrence in early-stage cancer, and treatment selection for patients with advanced cancer. For more information, visitguardanthealth.comand follow the company onLinkedIn,X (Twitter)andFacebook.

The Senior Service Engineer is a technical leader who will provide laboratory service and support to the Operations and Development labs across Guardant Health’s multiple locations. In this role, he/she will be expected to be the subject matter expert at performing equipment installations, qualifications, maintenance, and troubleshooting of complex laboratory automation systems, including liquid handlers and other instrumentation used within a sequencing workflow. If selected, the candidate will utilize their technical expertise to provide world‑class customer service, while adhering to quality and regulatory requirements. As a Senior Automation Service Engineer, the candidate will help lead and mentor team members, ensuring that tasks are performed correctly and efficiently. He/She shall collaborate with cross‑functional departments to help ensure that the team is meeting customer expectations. The selected candidate shall utilize past experiences to drive a continuous improvement culture by identifying gaps, proposing solutions, and driving them to implementation. As a senior member of the team, he/she will assist the management team to ensure instrument reliability metrics are met, equipment capacity does not breach thresholds, and workflows are being executed as streamlined as possible.

Responsibilities

• Perform installation and operational qualifications (IQOQ), monthly/semi‑annual/annual preventative maintenances (PM), troubleshooting and repair
• Own instrument uptime by resolving service requests in a timely manner and assisting teammates on more complex issues
• Perform expert‑level troubleshooting of automation systems and laboratory instrumentation
• Serve as a subject matter expert for laboratory automation systems and identify/resolve repeat issues
• Lead root cause investigations and implement corrective and preventive actions
• Maintain accurate service documentation in compliance with quality systems
• Analyze equipment performance trends and implement scalable, long‑term solutions
• Develop, standardize, and improve SOPs, checklists, and service documentation
• Drive enhancements to the maintenance and calibration processes for scalability and sustainability
• Ensure accuracy of maintenance and calibration within the asset management system
• Provide tier1 support to laboratory end‑users for issues related to equipment, communication/connectivity, methods, etc.
• Assist in temperature monitoring of cold storages, laboratories, warehouses, etc via a temperature monitoring system
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives as they relate to service processes to help streamline day‑to‑day workflows
• Mentor and train Automation Service Engineers colleagues and personnel from other cross‑functional departments
• Collaborate with cross‑functional departments within project core‑teams to implement lab deployments, relocations, and operational scale‑up
• Ensure team milestones and timelines are met in accordance to management guidance
• Support audits and inspections, ensuring regulatory readiness
• Collaborate with internal partners and external vendors, as needed
• Participate in an on‑call rotation to provide after‑hours support

Qualifications

• BS degree in engineering or scientific discipline, or equivalent (advanced degree preferred)
• 5–8+ years of relevant service/support experience
• 5+ years of service engineering or instrumentation support experience
• Expertise with Hamilton liquid handlers and laboratory automation systems
• Strong experience with Qiagen QiaSymphony, Agilent TapeStation, Illumina sequencers, and other laboratory equipment used within a sequencing workflow
• Proven experience authoring and executing PM, IQ, OQ, PQ, and service documentation
• Strong knowledge of CLIA, GMP, and regulated environments
• Demonstrated experience driving process standardization and scalability
• Demonstrated experience driving root cause analysis
• Demonstrated experience driving continuous improvements initiatives
• Experience with Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma methodologies
• Liquid handler programming experience preferred
• High‑throughput automation/workcell experience preferred
• Strong leadership, communication, and cross‑functional collaboration skills
• Ability to travel up to 20% AI & Digital Fluency
• Demonstrate curiosity, sound judgment, and the ability to critically evaluate and responsibly leverage AI‑enabled tools in accordance with company policies, ethical standards, and regulatory requirements to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of work.

Hybrid Work Model

This section is applicable to onsite employees who are eligible for hybrid work location as specified by management and related policies. Guardant has defined days for in‑person/onsite collaboration and work‑from‑home days for individual‑focused time. All U.S. employees who live within 50 miles of a Guardant facility will be required to be onsite on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. We have found aligning our scheduled in‑office days allows our teams to do the best work and creates the focused thinking time our innovative work requires. At Guardant, our work model has created flexibility for better work‑life balance while keeping teams connected to advance our science for our patients.

Base Pay

Primary Location: Redwood City, CA

Primary Location Base Pay Range: $127,100 - $174,800

Other US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $108,035 - $148,580

If the role is performed in Colorado, the pay range for this job is: $114,390 - $157,320

Work Environment

Employee may be required to lift routine office supplies and use office equipment. Majority of the work is performed in a desk/office environment; however, there may be exposure to high noise levels, fumes, and biohazard material in the laboratory environment. Ability to sit for extended periods of time.

Disability Accommodations

Guardant Health is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our hiring processes for candidates with disabilities, long‑term conditions, mental health conditions, or sincerely held religious beliefs. If you need support, please reach out to [e-mail]

Background Screening

A background screening including criminal history is required for this role. GH will consider qualified applicants with criminal arrest or conviction histories in a manner consistent with applicable law including but not limited to the LA County Fair Chance Policies and the Fair Chance Act (Gov. Code Section 12952).

Equal Employment Opportunity

Guardant Health is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

To learn more about the information collected when you apply for a position at Guardant Health, Inc. and how it is used, please review our Privacy Notice for Job Applicants.

Our Work Experience is the combination of everything that's unique about us: our culture, our core values, our company meetings, our commitment to sustainability, our recognition programs, but most importantly, it's our people. Our employees are self‑disciplined, hard working, curious, trustworthy, humble, and truthful. They make choices according to what is best for the team, they live for opportunities to collaborate and make a difference, and they make us the #1 Top Workplace in the area.