Drug Discovery Automation Software Engineer

Overview About Excelsior Sciences Excelsior Sciences is reinventing small-molecule discovery and manufacturing through Blocc chemistry—modular, automation-friendly chemistry designed for machines to execute and AI to learn from—combined with closed-loop AI learning systems.

Backed by a $70M Series A from Deerfield, Khosla Ventures, and Sofinnova, along with a $25M Empire State Development grant, Excelsior is building a lean, high-leverage organization at the intersection of chemistry, automation, software, and AI. Additional investors include Eli Lilly, Cornucopian Capital, Illinois Ventures, and MIT.Based at the Cure building in New York City, our goal is to build a chemistry and AI-native discovery platform in which high-quality experimental data continuously feeds learning systems that help determine what to make and test next—accelerating the cycle of molecular design, experimentation, and discovery.

Overview

This role sits on the Automation team (Physical AI & Lab IT) under the Chief Physical AI Officer, alongside Research Informatics / Software Engineering and Frontier AI (foundation models & AI/Quantum). The Automation team owns the software and systems that connect physical lab devices and robotic platforms to digital lab data and AI agents—enabling reliable, agentic control of automated workflows and closed-loop experimentation.

This role is also the Primary Service Owner for all Lab IT Support at Excelsior Sciences, responsible for lab computer lifecycle, warranty support, setup/configuration, endpoint security, remote access, and lab backup infrastructure.

We are seeking a software engineer with strong experience in laboratory automation and the software that sits at the interface between physical systems and digital/lab-data platforms. You will work as part of a collaborative, cross-functional team alongside scientists, automation engineers, and colleagues from Research Informatics and Frontier AI.

In addition to building automation and orchestration software, you will serve as the primary owner of Lab IT support services—ensuring lab computers; endpoint protection, remote access, and backup systems are reliable and ready for scientific use. The ideal candidate combines solid software engineering skills with practical lab instrumentation knowledge and hands‑on Lab IT ownership. Success means automated lab workflows become dependable, observable, and machine-actionable, while the underlying lab computing environment remains secure, supported, and operational.

• Design, build, and maintain software automation suites and agents that control web and desktop applications driving lab automation devices and integrated workcells.
• Develop software tools that automate manual processes and improve reliability, throughput, and data quality of existing automated workflows.
• Work closely with scientists and automation engineers to design and implement digital solutions and data workflows, with particular focus on instrument integrations and the hand-off between physical execution and lab data systems.
• Build and operate the orchestration and interface layer that allows AI agents (and human operators) to plan, dispatch, monitor, and learn from automated experiments—bridging physical devices and digital/lab-data platforms.
• Conduct testing, troubleshooting, and continuous improvement of automated workflows, including root-cause analysis across software, device, and data layers.
• Contribute to data management strategies and integrations that make instrument and automation data FAIR, high-quality, and usable by both scientists and AI systems.
• Integrate diverse data sources and informatics tools to support holistic analysis and decision-making in early drug discovery.
• Stay current on emerging automation, informatics, orchestration, and agentic AI tools relevant to early drug discovery; evaluate and prototype promising approaches.
• Provide training and support to research staff on automation and informatics tools and best practices.
• Participate in cross‑functional meetings to align automation efforts with project and platform goals; uphold high standards…