Senior Automation Engineer, High-Throughput Screening
Novartis is an innovative medicines company. Every day, we work to reimagine medicine to improve and extend people’s lives so that patients, healthcare professionals and societies are empowered in the face of serious disease. Our medicines reach more than 250 million people worldwide.
The Technology and User Services (TUS) group in NX is driven to help users use tools effectively to improve productivity and foster innovation. We deliver the Technology and User Services (TUS) group in NX to help customers use tools effectively to improve productivity and foster innovation. Our organization is here providing the technology backbone and devices that enable users to work in an office, lab or mobile environment.
Senior Automation Engineer, High-Throughput Screening
The primary responsibility of this role is to operate, maintain, and continuously improve high‑throughput screening systems that support small‑molecule drug discovery. In addition to core screening operations, this role will contribute to the longer‑term evolution of lab‑in‑the‑loop capabilities, including chemistry automation and integration with data and AI systems. The Senior Automation Engineer will work closely with biologists, chemists, engineers, and data scientists to support day‑to‑day discovery needs while helping advance next‑generation automation platforms.
The ideal candidate is a hands‑on automation engineer who enjoys running complex systems, troubleshooting real experimental workflows, and making practical improvements to how experiments are executed and connected.
Key Responsibilities:
- Operate, support, and maintain high‑throughput screening systems for small‑molecule discovery
- Ensure reliable execution of automated workflows, including system setup, calibration, and troubleshooting
- Partner with biologists and assay scientists to support screening campaigns and evolving experimental needs
- Diagnose workflow issues, interpret system performance data, and communicate findings to technical stakeholders
- Contribute to the design and improvement of chemistry‑adjacent and lab‑in‑the‑loop workflows
- Support integration between automation systems, data infrastructure, and AI/ML tools
- Develop and maintain automation scripts using Python or similar languages
Essential Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Engineering, or related discipline, or equivalent experience
- 5+ years of relevant experience
- Hands‑on experience with laboratory automation and automated experimental systems, ideally in a screening environment
- Proficiency in Python or similar programming languages
- Experience with system scheduling software, scripting, and basic database concepts
- Strong troubleshooting skills and comfort operating complex, integrated systems
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Highly Desirable Skills:
- Experience with chemistry-enabling or automated synthesis workflows
- Familiarity with liquid handling, acoustic transfer, analytical integration, and microplate‑based systems
- Exposure to lab‑in‑the‑loop or closed‑loop experimentation
- Experience interfacing automation systems with data pipelines or AI/ML tools
