Automation Engineer - Founding Team

About Riven

Our mission is to leverage fundamental science and the exponential growth of computational power to revolutionize industrial chemistry. We are integrating autonomous laboratories, computational modeling, and AI to systematize the design, de-risking, and deployment of new chemical capabilities. Our work is deeply interdisciplinary and closes the loop between fundamental physics and industrial deployment.

We are starting with critical minerals because they underpin virtually every facet of modern life—including energy infrastructure, compute architecture, and defense systems—and are at the heart of a generational effort to reindustrialize the west. We intend to dramatically reduce the time and cost required to scale new mineral processing capacity.

About the role

As an Automation Engineer you will build the self-driving laboratory our science runs on. You will work closely with experts in hydrometallurgy, machine learning, and autonomous experimentation to close the loop between machine intelligence and experimental execution.

Riven is hiring a lean, interdisciplinary team and experience spanning multiple roles is welcome. Apply to whichever role is closest to your skillset.

Initial Responsibilities

• Own physical automation of our lab: CAD, fabrication, wiring, commissioning, and control.

• Build the communication layer between third-party instruments and Riven's data pipeline.

• Run the risk assessments and design the guarding, interlocks, and limits that let a robot operate unattended in a wet lab.

• Build the labware tracking and state management that reliably tracks operations and outputs.

• Extend the platform with unattended operation and remote monitoring and control.

Qualifications

• Degree in mechanical, electrical, mechatronics, or robotics engineering, or equivalent demonstrated ability to design, build, and commission working automated systems.

• 3+ years hands-on automation experience across the project lifecycle: including machine design, fabrication, programming, and deployment.

• Practical cobot competence, including motion programming, TCP and payload configuration, workspace and keep-out definition, and safety-rated speed and force limiting.

• Strong mechanical design and CAD skills, including design for fabrication and for in-house FDM printing.

• Real electrical and controls work: sensors, actuators, digital I/O, relays, safety circuits, panel build, and schematics.

• Python for control code, instrument interfacing, and tooling.

• Clear interdisciplinary communication and the curiosity to quickly learn and execute in new domains.

• Ability to prioritize, execute, and collaborate with a high degree of agency, a willingness to be wrong, and the ambition to build something that has never existed before.

• Trust, humor, rigor, and an excitement to work in a scrappy, interdisciplinary early-stage environment.

Bonus Points

• Experience with laboratory automation: liquid handlers, autosamplers, analytical instruments, SBS labware conventions.

• Familiarity with lab and industrial integration protocols (SiLA 2, OPC-UA, Modbus, serial and TCP instrument APIs), or a track record of making undocumented interfaces work anyway.

• Materials engineering judgment in chemical environments: solvent and acid compatibility, elastomer and polymer selection, fume hood and ventilation constraints, containment.

• Machine vision for fiducial detection, alignment, or verification.

• Experience commissioning instrumentation or standing up a laboratory from an empty room.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and consider qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status, veteran status, medical condition or disability.

Compensation

The base salary range for this role is $170,000 – $210,000 per year.

Compensation decisions are made based on track-record, seniority, and skill set. Additional consideration can be given to candidates with exceptional experience.