Lab Automation Engineer with Process Chemistry (NO H1B)
Job Description
Job Description
Greetings from IT Engagements
Role: Automation Engineer with Process Chemistry Lab (NO H1B)
Location: Cambridge, MA
Position Summary:
We are seeking an Automation Engineer with a strong engineering and programming background to drive automation initiatives within our process chemistry and engineering team.
· The ideal candidate will be responsible for translating laboratory workflows into robust automated protocols and optimizing existing automation infrastructure.
· This person will serve as the in-house expert for custom robotics and system orchestration to advance pharmaceutical development.
· This role involves leading the evaluation and implementation of new automated systems for process characterization, as well as collaborating with process chemistry teams to identify automation opportunities.
· The successful applicant will develop and maintain documentation for automated processes, while also providing troubleshooting and technical support for automated systems.
· This role offers a chance to significantly enhance our automation capabilities as we move towards our goal of a self-automated lab.
Key Responsibilities:
• You will work closely with laboratory teams (process chemists, engineers, and the high-throughput experimentation team), fostering strong partnerships with scientists to deeply understand their research processes. Your goal will be to design, develop, and deploy cutting-edge automated systems, robotics, instrumentation, and digital workflows that significantly enhance the productivity and efficiency of our labs.
• You will be responsible for programming and developing automated laboratory systems.
· This includes supporting software development and deployment to automate workflows, integrating analytical instruments with laboratory software, and ensuring seamless communication between instruments and Sanofi's internal data management services.
· Evaluate and select automation platforms and robotics systems from various vendors suited for chemical and analytical workflows.
· Assist in the development and deployment of digital twins for both batch and continuous processes, ensuring alignment with Quality by Design (QbD) principles.
· You will play a key role in implementing and scaling Model Predictive Control (MPC) systems, leveraging advanced process models to optimize performance in real-time, maintain product quality, and enhance operational efficiency across large-scale manufacturing environments•
· Integrate high-throughput experimentation (HTE) tools such as liquid handlers, solid dispensers, and analytical instruments.
· Troubleshoot and maintain automated systems to ensure consistent and reliable performance.
· Provide concise technical presentations to communicate work to project teams, cross functional teams and management.
· Document all work on projects and continuous improvements in eLNB experiments and summarize in Technical Reports.
Required Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s (with 2+ years of experience) or Master’s degree in Engineering (e.g., Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Biomedical), Computer Science, or a related technical field.
• Strong skills in writing and optimizing scripts in programming or scripting automation systems
• Experience in designing and implementing automated laboratory processes from the initial concept through to full deployment.
• Strong understanding of robotics, instrument control, and system integration.
• An ability to work as part of a team, engaging other scientists with complementary skill sets in the field of pharmaceutical development.
• A change agent mentality, proposing novel approach to challenging scientific questions and exploring new modeling approaches. Preferred Qualifications:
• Familiarity with laboratory analytical measurement instruments or relevant work experience in a pharmaceutical sciences laboratory setting.
• Domain knowledge in small molecule process development with
demonstrated industrial applications or academic publications in this field
• Some knowledge in Multivariate Analysis, chemometrics and statistics
• Experience in the development and scale-up of continuous processes
Thank you