Hardware Engineer

This goal can only be achieved by bringing together people from different backgrounds: ML engineers, chemists, computer scientists, and hardware engineers. We are building a small, unusually ambitious team and are looking for an engineer who wants substantial ownership over design and creation of systems that operate in the real world.

Most existing automation equipment was developed for biology, where much of the work involves pipetting easy-to-handle aqueous solutions. Chemistry is very different: reagents can corrode metals, attack plastics, evaporate, react with air or moisture, precipitate, and clog tubing. Solids may not dispense consistently, reaction mixtures may change behavior over time, and workflows that appear simple on paper can fail in dozens of unexpected ways.

This makes chemistry automation extremely challenging. In many cases, existing equipment cannot simply be adapted to the task. Entire workflows, instruments, and robotic modules must be redesigned from first principles.