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# Director - Automation Engineering

- **Company:** RNA Group, LLC
- **Location:** Boston, MA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Laboratory Information Management Systems, Machine Learning, Automation of Marketing, Systems Integration, Scripting, Large Language Models, Information Technology
- **Published:** October 7, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.dice.com/job-detail/40246ee2-4b73-4314-a4aa-0d8e0b0b3ce4

## About the Role

* Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, biological sciences, or related engineering field, with 10+ years of relevant experience in laboratory automation, including experience leading teams., * Demonstrated experience leading and developing automation engineering teams.
 * Exceptional interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to build trust and drive adoption among scientific users, including those with limited prior automation experience.
 * Experience working directly with scientists to validate scientific workflows and weigh scientific tradeoffs and priorities.
 * Deep familiarity with cell culture automation and genomics automation.
 * Experience delivering pipeline-facing automation across chemistry, biology, genomics, in vivo pharmacology, and in vitro pharmacology.
 * Experience designing, building, and validating custom automation work cells.
 * Hands-on expertise with the Hamilton automation ecosystem, and familiarity with other major automation vendors such as Beckman, Dynamic Devices, and Agilent.
 * Experience with schedulers and end-to-end lab orchestration.
 * Experience integrating automation with ELN/LIMS, such as Benchling.
 * Experience supporting in vivo sample preparation workflows.
 * Experience using LLM-based coding tools or agentic assistants to accelerate method development, scripting, or systems integration.
 * Experience designing automation platforms that generate large-scale, structured datasets suitable for AI/ML applications.
 * Experience with automated sample management systems.
 * Advanced degree in a relevant engineering or scientific field is a plus.
 * Ability to travel up to 20% across sites.

## Description

* Lead, mentor, and grow a team of automation experts, setting technical direction and developing talent across the group
 * Partner with scientific users across RNA Therapeutics, building trust and driving adoption by delivering automation solutions that teams genuinely want to work with
 * Work directly with scientists to understand their workflows, weigh scientific tradeoffs and priorities, and validate that automated processes meet scientific intent
 * Develop and implement the RNA automation strategy, aligning platform investments with the scientific priorities of RNA Therapeutics
 * Design and deliver automation systems spanning walk-up instruments and fully integrated end-to-end workflows
 * Lead the deployment of custom work cells tailored to specific pipeline processes (e.g. NGS enablement) and throughput needs
 * Deliver pipeline-facing automation across chemistry, biology, genomics, in vivo pharmacology, and in vitro pharmacology
 * Strengthen data reproducibility across automated processes, establishing the standards, controls, and validation practices that make results consistent and reliable
 * Adopt and scale LLM-based tools to accelerate automation enablement and programming, reducing the time from concept to deployed method and lowering the barrier to onboarding new instruments and workflows
 * Partner with AI/ML colleagues to facilitate the implementation of agentic tools and workflows across automation platforms
 * Build highly integrated automation platforms that enable the generation of massively scaled datasets purpose-designed for AI/ML modeling efforts
 * Lead an automation team that spans multiple sites, coordinating delivery and standards across geographies
 * Advance capabilities across cell culture automation, genomics automation, agentic laboratory systems, and tissue sample preparation workflows
 * Lead lab orchestration efforts and integrations with core scientific software, including Benchling
 * Represent the team's work to internal and external partners and contribute to a culture of reliable, user-centered automation