Senior Automation Engineer

About Xaira Therapeutics Xaira is an innovative biotech startup focused on leveraging AI to transform drug discovery and development. The company is leading the development of generative AI models to design protein and antibody therapeutics, enabling the creation of medicines against historically hard-to-drug molecular targets. It is also developing foundation models for biology and disease to enable better target elucidation and patient stratification. Collectively, these technologies aim to continually enable the identification of novel therapies and to improve success in drug development. Xaira is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and London. About the Role We are seeking a Senior Automation Engineer to design, implement, and scale automated laboratory workflows and the supporting technologies that make them reliable, traceable, and extensible. This is a hands-on lab automation and technology development role focused on automating biological workflows on liquid handling robots and integrated automation workcells, while also developing the software, data, and LIMS-connected tools needed to make laboratory operations more scalable, observable, and AI-ready. This role sits at the intersection of biology, automation, robotics, software, and data systems. You will translate scientific workflows into reliable automated processes, support production-scale execution, and help build the control layers, data interfaces, and system integrations needed for more adaptive laboratory operations. Today, most lab automation systems are powerful but rigid, where hardware and software are typically designed to execute predefined instructions, not to understand workflow context, reason about errors, or support autonomous correction. This role will help close that gap by developing automation workflows and technical interfaces that connect physical lab systems with structured data, software tools, and future AI-enabled capabilities. You will work closely with scientists, software engineers, data teams, robotics engineers, IT partners, vendors, and other engineering collaborators to develop practical automation systems that support both near-term execution and longer-term technology development. This is an opportunity to help shape the foundation of modern, data-driven laboratory automation in a well-funded biotechnology environment.   Key Responsibilities You will design, program, deploy, and support automated laboratory workflows using liquid handlers and integrated workcells, including platforms such as Hamilton liquid handlers and HighRes systems. This includes translating biological protocols into reliable automated methods, optimizing workflows for throughput and reproducibility, troubleshooting automation issues, maintaining automation platforms, and working with vendors or internal teams to expand system capabilities. You will build and improve the software, data, and control interfaces that connect laboratory instruments, automation platforms, and informatics systems such as LIMS and ELN. This includes improving metadata capture, sample tracking, data traceability, structured APIs, instrument connectivity, and the flow of information between physical systems and downstream data infrastructure. You will help develop tools that make lab automation more observable, adaptive, and AI-ready. This may include creating interfaces that allow software or AI-enabled systems to understand workflow state, interpret instrument outputs, detect errors, recommend corrective actions, or support more intelligent workflow execution under appropriate controls. You will partner closely with scientists, software engineers, data teams, robotics engineers, IT partners, and external collaborators to identify automation opportunities and productionize workflows. Where relevant, this may include supporting robotic systems, material handling, computer vision, labware detection, quality control, and system monitoring within integrated laboratory workcells. You will document protocols, system architecture, troubleshooting procedures, and best practices, while helping establish scalable automation standards for the organization. As a senior team member, you will also mentor junior engineers and help guide technical decisions across automation projects.   Required Qualifications Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Bioengineering or an automation related technical field. 5+ years of lab automation and 2+ years of hands-on experience with liquid handling platforms such as Hamilton, Tecan, Beckman, or similar systems. Experience designing, programming, deploying, and troubleshooting automated laboratory workflows in a research or production environment. Strong programming skills, preferably in Python and/or C#. Experience with laboratory data systems, including SQL, data modeling, metadata capture, and/or pipeline orchestration. Experience integrating automati