LAB DONKEY
Automation Engineer
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Can you look at a robot, six laboratory instruments and an empty bench and work out how they should become one system?
Lab Donkey builds lab automation systems for pharmaceutical and biotech companies. We bring together robots, scientific instruments, benches, electrical systems and our own software to create complete automated workcells.
We are looking for a Graduate/Entry-Level Robotics & Automation Integration Engineer who can help take a system from a collection of individual components to something that works reliably in a real laboratory. You might currently be an Automation Engineer, Robotics Engineer, Integration Engineer, Mechatronics Engineer, Applications Engineer or something completely different. The title matters less to us than the work you have actually done.
What you will do
- Design the physical layout of automated laboratory systems, including robots, instruments, benches, guarding, brackets and supporting hardware.
- Produce mechanical designs and CAD for components, fixtures and system layouts.
- Work across mechanical and electrical integration, including sensors, actuators, wiring and system interfaces.
- Assemble and test systems in our own facilities before deployment.
- Install and commission automation systems at customer laboratories.
- Troubleshoot the inevitable difference between what looked perfect in CAD and what happens in the real world.
- Work closely with our software engineers and scientists to make the complete system work as one.
- Travel regularly to customer sites in the UK, Europe and the USA.
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What we are looking for
You should have hands-on experience designing, building or integrating physical automated systems. You do not need to come from laboratory automation specifically.
We are particularly interested in people with experience in some combination of:
- Robotics or industrial automation
- Mechanical design and CAD, ideally SolidWorks/Onshape or similar
- Electrical or electromechanical systems
- System integration
- Machine or workcell design
- Commissioning and installation
- Sensors, actuators and instrumentation
- Fabrication, assembly or prototyping
- Scientific instrumentation or laboratory automation
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Experience with laboratory instruments, liquid handlers or laboratory robotics is a strong advantage, but it is not essential.
What matters most is that you enjoy taking different pieces of technology, working out how they should fit together, and then physically making the system work.
Lab Donkey works with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies around the world, and we also operate from our own lab and office at the AstraZeneca in Gothenburg, Sweden.
This is a hands-on role. You will spend time in CAD, time building systems, and time onsite in customer laboratories.
If that sounds like the kind of engineering you enjoy, we would like to hear from you.
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