Associate Director, IT Research Automation Engineer - R&D

$135,500 - $213,400/Yr

Merck & Co. - Boston, MA

Full-time - Senior

Onsite - Boston, MA

Chemical Manufacturing

About the position

The Associate Director - Research Laboratory Automation Engineer will lead the strategy, design, implementation, and maintenance of automation platforms within the company's Research Laboratories and Pilot Plants. This role focuses on enhancing automation capabilities to support drug discovery and clinical phases, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to optimize and troubleshoot automation systems. The position requires a strong background in software development and operations in high throughput screening automation, as well as leadership skills to manage cross-functional teams and projects.

Responsibilities

• Define overall strategy for Laboratory and Pilot Plant automation workflows.
• Design and develop automated laboratory workflows, including sample preparation and assay execution on high throughput robotic screening platforms.
• Collaborate with scientists and engineers to identify automation needs and define project requirements.
• Evaluate and implement new laboratory automation and robotics technologies in collaboration with instrument vendors and suppliers.
• Troubleshoot systems including software, hosting servers, and instrument drivers to ensure minimal disruption to research activities.
• Test software prototypes and production systems according to safety and performance specifications.
• Manage implementation and upgrades of software to improve operational efficiencies and reliability of laboratory automation systems.
• Act as the single point of IT contact for all technical matters within the assigned product.
• Own IT product technology solutions from concept to retirement, focusing on increasing ROI and reducing financial investment.
• Develop and convey accurate project plans, resource estimates, and timelines in alignment with business requirements.
• Commit to IT infrastructure optimization and propose opportunities for continuous improvement.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in automation, engineering, robotics, science, or computer engineering related degree.
• 8 years of hands-on software development and operations in High Throughput Screening (HTS) automation.
• 8 years in IT with ability to architect, engineer, optimize and maintain software solutions for automation tools.
• 6 years' experience integrating robotic automation platforms with Enterprise LIMs and Sample Management platforms.
• 6 years' hands-on experience programming in modern object-oriented programming languages such as LabView, C#, Java, Oracle/SQL Server, Spotfire, Python.
• 3 years' experience with Windows Hyper-V, VMware workstation, Delta-V, Pi, SCADA systems.

Nice-to-haves

• 5 years of hands-on experience with AWS and HPC services.
• 5 years' experience with sample management systems and operations.
• Experience working in a large organization with Engineering and Product Management teams in a matrixed environment.
• Familiarity with networking, switches, VLANs, subnets, firewalls, and Windows Active Directory.

Benefits

• Bonus eligibility
• Long term incentive if applicable
• Health care and other insurance benefits for employee and family
• Retirement benefits
• Paid holidays
• Vacation
• Sick days