Automation Engineer II

Description

Department: Lab Science

Location: San Mateo, CA

The role

BigHat Biosciences is seeking a hands‑on Automation Engineer to build, support, and sustain the automated workflows that power our high‑throughput antibody production and characterization platform. We are looking for someone motivated by more than the engineering itself: they want their work to help bring cures to patients faster by leveraging an automated, ML‑driven antibody engineering platform.

This position reports directly to Keltoum Boukra and works in close collaboration with the Lab Automation team, alongside scientific, production, and software partners across the platform.

At BigHat we believe in titles that commensurate with skill set, relative organizational impact, and value contribution; more experienced candidates are encouraged to apply, with the understanding that responsibilities and title would adjust as appropriate.

Key Responsibilities

• Own automation projects end‑to‑end: lead the design, build, validation and deployment of new automated workflows, from requirements through production release, taking technical ownership of the result.
• Partner with scientific and production teams to scope projects, translate assay needs into robust automated workflows, and onboard them into routine use.
• Maintain and troubleshoot instruments and automated methods, and support lab users to keep the platform running and operators unblocked.
• Document automation procedures and SOPs, support knowledge transfer, and contribute to the growth of the automation team's know‑how.
• Collaborate with software engineering teams on end‑to‑end integrated workflows leveraging BigHat's software stack.

Skills Knowledge And Expertise

• 3+ years of relevant lab automation or liquid‑handling industry experience.
• Hands‑on experience in liquid‑handler method development (e.g. Hamilton Venus, Tecan FluentControl, Beckman Biomek, Agilent VWorks, Analytik Jena Composer, or similar), with Hamilton STAR or Vantage strongly preferred.
• Hands‑on experience troubleshooting and maintaining liquid handlers, and supporting automation users in the lab.
• Experience partnering with scientific and production teams to scope, build, and onboard automated workflows.
• Working knowledge of experimental design, process documentation, and data analysis.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to work across diverse teams (protein scientists, research associates, data scientists, software engineers).
• A genuine drive to contribute, and the curiosity to keep learning and take on unfamiliar problems, adding to the team through fresh problem solving, complementary expertise, or new tools and practices.
• Experience automating high‑throughput protein production and characterization workflows, a strong plus though not required.
• Comfort working in a fluid, dynamic start‑up environment.
• Willingness to work onsite, as the role is hands‑on with instruments and in‑lab support, so physical presence is required.

Total Rewards

The salary estimated for this position is $150,000 - $165,000 + bonus + options + benefits. Compensation will vary depending on job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. Actual compensation will be confirmed in writing at the time of the offer.