Hardware Engineer, Peptide Synthesis Automation

About the Role

We are a vibrant and intensely mission-driven team in San Francisco, comprising members from MIT, Harvard Medical School, Roche, ETH, and Dana-Farber.

We value speed and rigor, coupled with excitement, drive, and a strong work ethic. In an early-stage environment, we value people who can bring clarity to open-ended problems, take ownership of the next steps, and follow through with energy.

Capable Labs is a place for ambitious, high-integrity people who want to become dramatically better. You will be surrounded by people who care intensely about the work, get close feedback from the people making scientific and company-defining decisions, and have room to own increasingly important problems.

We believe excellent work should be met with meaningful reward, ownership, and trust. Responsibility is earned through contribution, not title alone: anyone who demonstrates the judgment, rigor, and follow-through to move important work forward can earn meaningful scope.

You do not need to have experience with every item on this list; we value deep expertise in some areas and a willingness to learn in others.

• Design and develop automated peptide synthesis systems for high-throughput, reliable solid-phase peptide synthesis, encompassing reagent delivery, resin handling, deprotection, coupling, washing, cleavage interface, and process monitoring.
• Engineer comprehensive fluidic architectures, including pumps, valves, manifolds, tubing, reactors, frits, seals, pressure control, solvent compatibility, dead volume management, cross-contamination prevention, priming, draining, and waste handling.
• Develop advanced reaction modules for SPPS, such as resin cartridges, packed-bed reactors, agitation/mixing solutions, temperature management, microwave or thermal integration, inline sensing, and reproducible reagent contact.
• Create robust control systems to manage timed reagent addition, flow rate, pressure, temperature, mixing, cycle logic, fault detection, and implement automated recovery procedures for clogs, leaks, pressure excursions, or failed deliveries.
• Prototype, test, and troubleshoot electromechanical systems including pumps, solenoids, stepper motors, sensors, heaters, pressure transducers, balances, liquid-level sensors, optical sensors, and embedded controllers.
• Assess and validate hardware performance against key chemical outputs such as crude purity, deletion sequences, incomplete coupling, side products, yield, reproducibility, cycle time, resin swelling, and cleavage efficiency.
• Collaborate closely with chemists to translate synthesis failure modes into hardware improvements, addressing challenges such as poor mixing, insufficient reagent excess, channeling, dead volume, moisture ingress, valve carryover, slow draining, temperature gradients, or instrument downtime.
• Develop test protocols and quality acceptance criteria for each subsystem, including dispense accuracy, carryover, leak rate, pressure stability, thermal uniformity, solvent compatibility, and run-to-run reproducibility.
• Integrate the synthesizer with analytical workflows such as HPLC, LC-MS, preparative HPLC, balance measurements, barcode/sample tracking, and batch-level quality control.
• Drive efforts towards creating an instrument that enables faster, more reproducible peptide synthesis with minimal manual intervention compared to standard industry workflows.

• You will be instrumental in establishing the hardware engineering function s is a critical role focused on pioneering the development of a novel peptide synthesis instrument.
• You possess the expertise and confidence to take ownership of complex physical systems and are committed to delivering dependable, high-quality performance.
• You demonstrate strong initiative and problem-solving skills. When instrumentation issues occur, such as abnormal pressure traces, leaks, or suboptimal synthesis outcomes, you systematically diagnose root causes and enact effective improvements.
• You may have a background in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemical engineering, bioengineering, analytical chemistry, automation, robotics, or possess equivalent hands‑on…