Junior Lab Technician
About the job
- A bachelor's degree in a technical discipline, such as materials science, physics, chemistry, or engineering, or a science T-level with a relevant specialism such as Laboratory Sciences.
- Practical exposure to laboratory environments, potentially gained through academic projects, industrial placements, or advanced coursework.
- A rigorous and methodical mindset with a strong eye for detail.
- Eagerness to master the operation and technical upkeep of sophisticated, research-grade instrumentation.
- Strong accountability regarding safety protocols and disciplined execution of established procedures.
- Organisational habits that support maintaining precise, transparent experimental records.
- Operate the core instrument suite, including thin film deposition systems, high-vacuum equipment, high-temperature metallurgy systems, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and optical characterisation equipment.
- Perform routine and preventive maintenance, and help diagnose faults before they become failures.
- Run synthesis and characterisation experiments, ensuring reproducibility and rigorous data capture throughout.
- Support writing and maintaining standard operating procedures (SOPs) and risk assessments for equipment and processes.
- Manage consumables, materials inventory, and equipment readiness for the broader research team.
- Collaborate with materials scientists and machine-learning researchers to design experimental runs and interpret results.
- Support integration of experimental data into digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence pipelines.
- Previous hands-on experience with tools in the suite, such as SEM, XRD, thin film deposition, arc melting, metal grinding and polishing, or high-vacuum systems.
- Familiarity with chemicals and standard laboratory safety regulations and practices.
- Previous background or interest in a high-velocity start-up or agile research setting.
- Interest in the potential of artificial intelligence and machine learning for scientific breakthroughs and accelerated materials discovery.
About the company
Diffractive Labs is a London-based company building an AI Material Scientist, an autonomous system that discovers new materials by learning from real-world experimentation. It pairs machine learning models, including graph neural networks, with robotic lab automation, so computational predictions and physical experiments continuously inform each other in a closed discovery loop. A team of experimental scientists, computational researchers, and platform engineers runs experiments at scale, replacing manual trial-and-error. What sets Diffractive Labs apart is closing the loop between simulation and lab work, letting AI models propose materials and validate them through automated experimentation. The goal is to accelerate materials discovery and expand the pace of scientific research.
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Company Stage
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Total Funding
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Headquarters
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Founded
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Built a 2026 hiring pipeline across experimental, platform, and research teams.
- Active postings in September 2026 show continued execution, not shutdown.
- Autonomous lab automation targets expensive materials bottlenecks with immediate enterprise value.
What critics are saying
- Twelve open roles in June 2026 signal high burn before revenue.
- Raised about $5 million leaves little room for failed experiments or delays.
- Materials discovery commercialization remains unproven; one bad data cycle kills conviction.
What makes Diffractive Labs unique
- Diffractive Labs closes the loop between wet-lab experiments and AI materials models.
- Its 2026 hiring spans lab automation, DFT, GNNs, and machine learning.
- London-based team builds autonomous materials discovery, not a software-only proxy.
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Benefits
- Flexible Work Hours
- Remote Work Options
- Company Equity