b.next · 4 days ago
Automation Engineer
San Francisco, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Entry, Mid Level
2+ years expb.next is a company focused on advancing compositional biology through automation. They are seeking an Automation Engineer to automate in-house manufacturing and research protocols, contributing directly to their open-source synthetic cell platform.
Biotechnology
Responsibilities
Collaborate with biologists and engineers to convert manual processes into reliable, high-throughput, automated workflows
Build upon, extend, and maintain our internal codebase for automation (e.g Opentrons and related systems)
Design, run, and analyze experiments to develop and validate automated processes
Translate automated processes to lab operations through documentation, training, and ongoing technical support
Design and implement metrics, standards, and QC to ensure liquid handling reproducibility and consistency
Operate and monitor automated processes for ongoing research and development projects
Onboard, operate, and support key lab and automation equipment. (e.g., Plate Readers, LabChip, etc.)
Document automation workflows, interfaces, and best practices for team scalability
Contribute to long-term platform strategy—improving the pace and reliability of our bioengineering efforts
Qualification
Required
Demonstrated success automating biological or chemical processes
2+ years experience in lab automation, preferably with Opentrons, Hamilton, or Tecan systems
Understanding of and practical experience with wet-lab molecular biology or related field
Strong Python development skills (e.g., architecture, API design, version control, documentation, unit and integration testing)
Familiarity with lab data management (e.g., analytical data, plate maps, workflow orchestration, instrument logs, metadata standards)
Experience implementing QC or analytical feedback loops in automated workflows
Strong written and oral communication, and collaboration practices
Detail-oriented, systematic thinker with an ability to bridge experimental workflows to code
Preferred
Experience with custom hardware integrations and robotic peripherals
Experience in biomanufacturing, protein production, synthetic biology
Experience with computational scientific analysis tools (e.g. Jupyter, Marimo)
Experience with workflow automation tools (e.g., NextFlow, SnakeMake, Apache Airflow)
Ability to connect lab automation to broader digital infrastructure (e.g., LIMS, scheduling, data analytics)
Comfortable onboarding, maintaining, and troubleshooting diverse lab instruments
Benefits
Direct influence on the architecture of our biological manufacturing platform.
Close collaboration with an interdisciplinary team shaping the future of compositional biology.
A dynamic startup environment where innovation and impact happen daily.
Company
b.next
Rebuilding biology for engineering
2-10 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Early StageLeadership Team
Anton Molina, PhD
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Company data provided by crunchbase