Software Automation Engineer AIR Oxford, England, United Kingdom

About EIT:

Led by a world class faculty of scientists, technologists, policy makers, economists and entrepreneurs, the Ellison Institute of Technology aims to develop and deploy commercially sustainable solutions to solve some of humanity's most enduring challenges. Our work is guided by four Humane Endeavours: Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology, Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture, Climate Change & Managing Atmospheric CO2 and Artificial Intelligence & Robotics.

Set for completion in 2027, the EIT Campus in Littlemore will include more than 300,000 sq ft of research laboratories, educational and gathering spaces. Fuelled by growing ambition and the strength of Oxford's science ecosystem, EIT is now expanding its footprint to a 2 million sq ft Campus across the western part of The Oxford Science Park. Designed by Foster + Partners led by Lord Norman Foster, this will become a transformative workplace for up to 7,000 people, with autonomous laboratories, purpose built laboratories including a plant sciences building and dynamic spaces to spark interdisciplinary collaboration.

The Role:

We're looking for an Automation Engineer to join our team in building the next generation of autonomous laboratory platforms. In this role, you'll be instrumental in designing automation workflows and developing software to hardware integrations that enable cutting edge, self driving science.

The ideal candidate will bring hands on experience in automation engineering, with a track record of creative, out of the box approaches to automating scientific or industrial processes. Experience with different scales of automation is highly valuable. This position requires strong technical skills and a collaborative mindset to deliver reliable and innovative automation solutions.

Day to Day, You Might:

• Design and implement novel automated scientific workflows, translating complex processes into scalable, repeatable protocols using robotics & relevant software.
• Integrate laboratory hardware and software, exposing firmware capabilities through standardized interfaces to build a cohesive and robust system.
• Contribute to the architectural design to ensure high reliability across all automation systems, following best practices for testing, monitoring, error handling, and performance tracking.
• We look for engineers who can take systems apart, understand them deeply, and reimagine how they can be used to create innovative solutions.
• Collaborate effectively within cross functional team including scientific, technical, and operational colleagues to ensure automation solutions meet project and user needs.
• Collaborate effectively within the developer team to build robust, scalable and re usable pipelines, maintaining high standard of code quality and transparency.
• Work with external vendors to evaluate and deploy new technologies.
• Document technical designs, implementation details, and trade offs clearly for both technical and non technical stakeholders.

What Makes You a Great Fit:

• Experience in hardware automation engineering, e.g., automation engineering, biotechnology, robotics, systems integration.
• A demonstrable track record of designing and deploying automation systems in scientific or industrial environments in a robust manner, including success integrating robotics, peripherals, and/or mechanical automation systems, beyond the scope of commercial suppliers.
• Expertise integrating lab instruments via communication protocols and experience orchestrating multiple devices.
• Skilled in firmware level control, driver development, device discovery, and exposing firmware capabilities through standardized APIs.
• Extensive experience adhering to software development best practices, e.g., documentation, effective resources use, Git, PR reviews, etc.
• Advanced skills in relevant programming languages such as C/C++ & Python.
• A creative approach to automation-able to design workflows that don't simply mimic human lab practices.

Great to Also Have

Nobody checks every box - if you're not sure if you're qualified, we still encourage you to apply.

• Proficiency in relevant open source libraries like PyLabRobot.
• Experience designing and building device twins.
• A background in biotech, pharma, materials science, or other automation intensive R&D.
• A university degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field.

We offer the following salary and benefits:

• Enhanced holiday pay
• Pension
• Life Assurance
• Income Protection
• Private Medical Insurance
• Hospital Cash Plan
• Therapy Services
• Perk Box
• Electric Car Scheme

Why work for EIT:

At the Ellison Institute, we believe a collaborative, inclusive team is key to our success. We are building a supportive environment where creative risks are encouraged, and everyone feels heard. Valuing emotional intelligence, empathy, respect, and resilience, we encourage people to be curious and to have a shared commitment to excellence. Join us and make an impact!