Lab Automation Lead - biotech

Your new company \nHays have been exclusively retained by an innovative, growing biotech in London to hire an experienced Lead Automation Engineer into their R&D team. You'll work within a multidisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and data specialists, contributing to the development of cutting‑edge translational research platforms as the company builds its capacity.\n\nYour new role \nAs a Senior/Lead Automation Engineer, you will take technical ownership of laboratory automation systems, focusing on the optimisation and reliability of liquid handling platforms and automated workflows as the company continues to automate a number of its processes.\nKey responsibilities include:\n\nOwning the performance, maintenance, and reliability of laboratory automation systems, particularly liquid handling platforms\nOperating, troubleshooting, and optimising robotic systems (e.g. Hamilton, Tecan, Opentrons)\nActing as the primary escalation point for automation failures, instrument errors, and workflow interruptions\nTranslating manual and semi‑automated processes into robust, scalable automated workflows to support R&D operations\nSupporting commissioning, validation, and integration of new automation platforms\nCollaborating cross‑functionally with scientists, software engineers, and data teams to improve workflow efficiency\nWriting and maintaining SOPs, technical documentation, and troubleshooting guides\nDriving continuous improvements in throughput, reproducibility, and operational efficiency\nCoordinating vendor support, servicing, and upgrades\nThis is a permanent, lab based role at the company's site in London.\n\nWhat you'll need to succeed \nA strong candidate will bring hands‑on engineering expertise and experience improving laboratory automation systems.You should be excited by the challenges involved in bringing in new equipment and solving problems within R&D workflows and have:\n\nStrong experience with laboratory automation, gained in a biotech, pharma, contract research organisation, or a similar environment\nHands‑on expertise working with liquid handling robots (e.g.