Staff Automation Engineer

Company Description

Guardant Health is a leading precision oncology company focused on guarding wellness and giving every person more time free from cancer. Founded in 2012, Guardant® is transforming patient care and accelerating new cancer therapies by providing critical insights into what drives disease through its advanced blood and tissue tests, real-world data and AI analytics. Guardant tests help improve outcomes across all stages of care, including screening to find cancer early, monitoring for recurrence in early-stage cancer, and treatment selection for patients with advanced cancer. For more information, visit guardanthealth.com and follow the company on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Facebook. 

Position Summary:

As a Staff Lab Automation Engineer, you will participate in the design, build, and deployment of integrated laboratory work cells for NGS sample and reagent processing. You will architect multi-instrument systems, including liquid handlers, robotic arms and peripherals from concept through validation. You will engineer solutions that meet assay performance requirements while improving reliability, throughput, and cost, and you will mentor engineers and partner with assay, operations, quality, and regulatory teams.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Work Cell Design, Integration and Automation Programming:

• Program, test, troubleshoot, and optimize workcells end to end, from requirements through validation and deployment.

• Integrate and program liquid handlers (e.g., Hamilton STAR, Agilent Bravo, Lynx), robotic arms using Guidance Development Environment (e.g., Brooks PreciseFlex), and peripherals into work cells.

• Model throughput to find bottlenecks and guide layout; own technical risk and FMEAs.

• Evaluate new automation technologies and vendors.

• Engineer solutions that meet assay performance requirements for precision, timing, temperature, and contamination control.

• Lead validation strategy (IQ/OQ/PQ) and set team documentation standards in a regulated environment.

• Transfer validated work cells into production, including SOPs and training.

Collaboration and Communication:

• Partner with assay scientists to translate assay requirements into automated workflows.

• Set technical direction; coordinate engineers and external integrators.

• Mentor engineers up to Senior level.

• Lead design reviews and report milestones and risks to leadership.

Qualifications:

• BS in engineering or science with 8+ years of related experience, MS with 6+ years, or PhD with 3+ years.

• Track record delivering integrated, multi-instrument work cells from concept through deployment.

• Hands-on experience with liquid handlers (e.g., Hamilton STAR, Agilent Bravo, Lynx), and robotic arms (e.g., Brooks PreciseFlex).
• Experience developing interfaces between lab automation and Laboratory Information Management (LIMS) databases. 
• Proficiency in C#, VB.NET, or Python; familiarity with XML and JSON.

• Experience with validation and documentation in regulated environments (IVD, LDT, etc.).

• Experience with NGS assays and throughput modeling or simulation preferred.
• Excellent problem-solving and debugging skills. 
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively as part of a team with diverse scientific, engineering, operational, and regulatory disciplines.
• Strong communication, problem-solving, and cross-functional leadership skills.

AI & Digital Fluency

• Demonstrate curiosity, sound judgment, and the ability to critically evaluate and responsibly leverage AI-enabled tools in accordance with company policies, ethical standards, and regulatory requirements to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of work.

Hybrid Work Model: This section is applicable to onsite employees who are eligible for hybrid work location as specified by management and related policies.  Guardant has defined days for in-person/onsite collaboration and work-from-home days for individual-focused time. All U.S. employees who live within 50 miles of a Guardant facility will be required to be onsite on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. We have found aligning our scheduled in-office days allows our teams to do the best work and creates the focused thinking time our innovative work requires. At Guardant, our work model has created flexibility for better work-life balance while keeping teams connected to advance our science for our patients.

The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. This range does not include benefits or, if applicable, bonus, commission, or equity. Each candidate’s compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, geography, experience, education, job-related skills, job duties, and business need.

Primary Location: Palo Alto, CA
Primary Location Base Pay Range: $160,500 - $220,700
Other US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $136,400 - $187,600
If the role is performed in Colorado, the pay range for this job is: $144,500 - $198,600