Senior Automation Engineer South San Francisco, California,

About Xaira Therapeutics

Xaira is an innovative biotech startup focused on leveraging AI to transform drug discovery and development. The company is leading the development of generative AI models to design protein and antibody therapeutics, enabling the creation of medicines against historically hard-to-drug molecular targets. It is also developing foundation models for biology and disease to enable better target elucidation and patient stratification. Collectively, these technologies aim to continually enable the identification of novel therapies and to improve success in drug development.

Xaira is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle, and London.

We are seeking a Senior Automation Engineer to design, implement, and scale automated laboratory workflows and the supporting technologies that make them reliable, traceable, and extensible. This is a hands-on lab automation and technology development role focused on automating biological workflows on liquid handling robots and integrated automation workcells, while also developing the software, data, and LIMS-connected tools needed to make laboratory operations more scalable, observable, and AI-ready.

This role sits at the intersection of biology, automation, robotics, software, and data systems. You will translate scientific workflows into reliable automated processes, support production-scale execution, and help build the control layers, data interfaces, and system integrations needed for more adaptive laboratory operations.

Today, most lab automation systems are powerful but rigid, where hardware and software are typically designed to execute predefined instructions, not to understand workflow context, reason about errors, or support autonomous correction. This role will help close that gap by developing automation workflows and technical interfaces that connect physical lab systems with structured data, software tools, and future AI-enabled capabilities.

You will work closely with scientists, software engineers, data teams, robotics engineers, IT partners, vendors, and other engineering collaborators to develop practical automation systems that support both near-term execution and longer-term technology development.

This is an opportunity to help shape the foundation of modern, data-driven laboratory automation in a well-funded biotechnology environment.

• Design, program, deploy, and support automated laboratory workflows using liquid handlers and integrated workcells, including platforms such as Hamilton liquid handlers and High Res systems. Translate biological protocols into reliable automated methods, optimize workflows for throughput and reproducibility, troubleshoot automation issues, maintain automation platforms, and work with vendors or internal teams to expand system capabilities.
• Build and improve the software, data, and control interfaces that connect laboratory instruments, automation platforms, and informatics systems such as LIMS and ELN. Improve metadata capture, sample tracking, data traceability, structured APIs, instrument connectivity, and the flow of information between physical systems and downstream data infrastructure.
• Develop tools that make lab automation more observable, adaptive, and AI-ready. This may include interfaces that allow software or AI-enabled systems to understand workflow state, interpret instrument outputs, detect errors, recommend corrective actions, or support more intelligent workflow execution under appropriate controls.
• Partner with scientists, software engineers, data teams, robotics engineers, IT partners, and external collaborators to identify automation opportunities and product ionize workflows. This may include supporting robotic systems, material handling, computer vision, labware detection, quality control, and system monitoring within integrated laboratory workcells.
• Document protocols, system architecture, troubleshooting procedures, and best practices, and help establish scalable automation standards. As a senior team member, mentor junior engineers and guide technical decisions across automation projects.

• Bachelor’s or…