Full-Time
Lab Engineer
Diffractive Labs
Autonomous AI research lab for materials discovery
No salary listed
London, UK
In Person
 Lab & Research (1) |
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- Several years of hands-on experience operating and maintaining research-grade equipment in a professional setting.
- Direct experience with two or more instrument domains, including high-vacuum equipment, X-ray diffraction, optical characterisation setups, high-temperature metallurgical synthesis equipment, high-field magnets, or scanning electron microscopy.
- Working knowledge of vacuum systems, including pump types, leak detection, and routine maintenance.
- Familiarity with ionising radiation safety requirements and relevant local regulations.
- Background in one or more of semiconductor manufacturing, scientific instrumentation companies, industrial research, national laboratories or other major national facilities, or non-destructive testing.
- A careful, methodical approach to documentation, including maintenance logs, standard operating procedures, and data provenance.
- Operate the core instrument suite independently, including high-vacuum equipment, high-temperature metallurgy systems, high-field magnets, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and optical characterisation.
- Perform routine and preventive maintenance and diagnose faults before they become failures.
- Run synthesis and characterisation experiments, ensuring reproducibility and rigorous data capture.
- Write and maintain standard operating procedures and risk assessments for owned 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 the integration of experimental data into digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence pipelines.
- Experience writing or reviewing standard operating procedures and risk assessments from scratch.
- Some computer-aided design experience for fixture or tooling design.
- Exposure to automated data capture or basic scripting for instrument control.
- Experience in a startup or fast-moving research environment.
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.
Company Size
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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
- Diffractive Labs has reportedly raised about $5 million, supporting multi-year execution.
- Recent 2026 hiring for DFT, lab engineering, and research signals active buildout.
- Founding roles and London expansion indicate a serious team-building phase is underway.
What critics are saying
- The company remains stealthy, with no disclosed customers or validated revenue.
- Competing materials-AI startups can copy workflow claims before Diffractive proves breakthroughs.
- If experiments fail to beat manual discovery by 2027, hiring momentum collapses.
What makes Diffractive Labs unique
- Diffractive Labs is building an autonomous AI Material Scientist with real-world experimentation.
- The platform closes the loop between simulation, robotic lab automation, and synthesis.
- London-based team combines computational materials science, LLMs, and experimental workflows.
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Benefits
Flexible Work Hours
Remote Work Options
Company Equity