Senior Software Engineer - Lab Automation

A healthier future. It’s what drives us to innovate. To continuously advance science and ensure everyone has access to the healthcare they need today and for generations to come. Creating a

world where we all have more time with the people we love. That’s what makes us Roche.

Advances in AI, data, and computational sciences are transforming drug discovery and development. Roche’s Research and Early Development organizations at Genentech (gRED) and Pharma (pRED) have demonstrated how these technologies accelerate R&D, leveraging data and novel computational models to drive impact. Seamless data sharing and access to models across gRED and pRED are essential to maximizing these opportunities. The new Computational Sciences Center of Excellence (CoE) is a strategic, unified group whose goal is to harness this transformative power of data and Artificial Intelligence to assist our scientists to deliver more innovative and transformative medicines for patients worldwide.

The Opportunity

At Genentech (gRED) and Roche (pRED), we’re applying software, robotics, and advanced AI to solve one of humanity’s hardest challenges: building fully autonomous, self-healing laboratories for lights-out drug discovery. Advances in AI, data, and computational sciences are transforming drug discovery and development. The Computational Sciences Center of Excellence (CoE) and the Data and Digital Catalyst (DDC) team are building the foundational platform for autonomous labs—turning frontier AI models, rich physical telemetry, and multi-vendor robotics into resilient, intelligent systems that run complex science unattended around the clock to deliver life-saving medicines to patients faster than ever before.

As a Senior Software Engineer – Lab Automation, you will be the essential bridge connecting software architecture, frontier AI models, and real-world physical instrumentation. You will architect the hardware abstraction layers, instrument integration frameworks, and orchestration engines that allow diverse lab automation platforms to operate with seamless reliability and closed-loop error recovery. If you are inspired by the challenge of building a robust software backbone powering autonomous science, this is your opportunity to pioneer the next generation of automated laboratories at global scale.

In this role, you will:

• Design, program, and troubleshoot high-throughput lab workflows ensuring robust assay execution on physical hardware.
• Build orchestration systems, hardware abstraction layers, and instrument drivers that manage retries, handle shared resource contention, and enable 24/7 unattended operation.
• Implement telemetry, logging, metrics, and alerting across hardware and software to diagnose failures and resolve root causes using software hooks or vision models rather than relying on manual workarounds.
• Build systems to maintain an accurate real-time digital representation of the lab, including sample tracking, instrument state, and reagent availability, with bidirectional integration into LIMS and ELNs.
• Manage hardware requirements, site constraints, communication protocols, and workcell integration from initial mechanical layout and prototyping through production deployment.
• Work directly with software engineers, automation scientists, and hardware engineers to translate complex scientific protocols into production-grade technical architectures.

Who you are

• 5+ years of software engineering and physical hardware integration experience, or an equivalent advanced degree with a proven industrial automation track record.
• Proficient in Python or C# for building modular software architectures, integration frameworks, and distributed services.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals, including system design, automated testing, version control, CI/CD, debugging, and production operations.
• AI-native software engineer with effective practices for providing context, decomposing problems, directing agents, reviewing their work, and validating results. Deep understanding of the limitations of AI-generated code.
• Hands-on experience programming commercial liquid-handling platforms and integrating robotic arms or manipulators into unified automated workcells.
• Experienced in designing workflow orchestration and scheduling systems that manage shared resources, dynamic dependencies, and execution priorities.
• Skilled at leveraging APIs and SDKs (such as REST, gRPC, and vendor interfaces) to interact with complex laboratory software ecosystems.
• Practical rapid-prototyping design experience, including CAD, 3D printing, CNC milling, or laser cutting for custom fixtures and hardware adaptations.
• Familiar with molecular biology, biochemistry, or wet-lab workflows, enabling effective translation between scientific requirements and engineering deliverables.
• Clear communicator adept at collaborating across multidisciplinary teams spanning research scientists, software developers, and automation engineers.

Preferred, but not required

• Experience creating and evaluating AI agents used within applications, including designing robust evals to measure agent performance and reliability.
• Experience integrating computer vision models (such as OpenCV, YOLO, or SAM) for automated error recovery, deck inspection, and anomaly detection.
• Hands-on background in training, evaluating, or adopting AI/ML models, including reinforcement learning or imitation learning for robotics.
• Knowledgeable about sensors, microcontrollers, embedded communication protocols, and task-and-motion planning.
• Familiar with cloud infrastructure, containerized deployment, and digital twin simulation workflows.

Relocation benefits are not available for this opportunity

The expected salary range for this position based on the primary location of San Francisco is $142,500 - 264,700 of hiring range. Actual pay will be determined based on experience, qualifications, geographic location, and other job-related factors permitted by law. A discretionary annual bonus may be available based on individual and Company performance. This position also qualifies for the benefits detailed at the link provided below.

Benefits

#ComputationCoE

#tech4lifeComputationalScience

Genentech is an equal opportunity employer. It is our policy and practice to employ, promote, and otherwise treat any and all employees and applicants on the basis of merit, qualifications, and competence. The company's policy prohibits unlawful discrimination, including but not limited to, discrimination on the basis of Protected Veteran status, individuals with disabilities status, and consistent with all federal, state, or local laws.

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