Senior Automation Service Engineer

Company Description

Guardant Health is a leading precision oncology company focused on guarding wellness and giving every person more time free from cancer. Founded in 2012, Guardant® is transforming patient care and accelerating new cancer therapies by providing critical insights into what drives disease through its advanced blood and tissue tests, real-world data and AI analytics. Guardant tests help improve outcomes across all stages of care, including screening to find cancer early, monitoring for recurrence in early-stage cancer, and treatment selection for patients with advanced cancer. For more information, visit guardanthealth.com and follow the company on LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Facebook. 

The Senior Service Engineer is a technical leader who will provide laboratory service and support to the Operations and Development labs across Guardant Health’s multiple locations. In this role, he/she will be expected to be the subject matter expert at performing equipment installations, qualifications, maintenance, and troubleshooting of complex laboratory automation systems, including liquid handlers and other instrumentation used within a sequencing workflow. If selected, the candidate will utilize their technical expertise to provide world-class customer service, while adhering to quality and regulatory requirements. As a Senior Automation Service Engineer, the candidate will help lead and mentor team members, ensuring that tasks are performed correctly and efficiently. He/She shall collaborate with cross-functional departments to help ensure that the team is meeting customer expectations. The selected candidate shall utilize past experiences to drive a continuous improvement culture by identifying gaps, proposing solutions, and driving them to implementation. As a senior member of the team, he/she will assist the management team to ensure instrument reliability metrics are met, equipment capacity does not breach thresholds, and workflows are being executed as streamlined as possible.

Responsibilities

Perform installation and operational qualifications (IQOQ), monthly/semi-annual/annual preventative maintenances (PM), troubleshooting and repair

Own instrument uptime by resolving service requests in a timely manner and assisting teammates on more complex issues

Perform expert-level troubleshooting of automation systems and laboratory instrumentation

Serve as a subject matter expert for laboratory automation systems and identify/resolve repeat issues

Lead root cause investigations and implement corrective and preventive actions

Maintain accurate service documentation in compliance with quality systems

Analyze equipment performance trends and implement scalable, long-term solutions

Develop, standardize, and improve SOPs, checklists, and service documentation

Drive enhancements to the maintenance and calibration processes for scalability and sustainability

Ensure accuracy of maintenance and calibration within the asset management system

Provide tier 1 support to laboratory end-users for issues related to equipment, communication/connectivity, methods, etc.

Assist in temperature monitoring of cold storages, laboratories, warehouses, etc via a temperature monitoring system

Drive continuous improvement initiatives as they relate to service processes to help streamline day-to-day workflows

Mentor and train Automation Service Engineers colleagues and personnel from other cross-functional departments

Collaborate with cross-functional departments within project core-teams to implement lab deployments, relocations, and operational scale-up

Ensure team milestones and timelines are met in accordance to management guidance

Support audits and inspections, ensuring regulatory readiness

Collaborate with internal partners and external vendors, as needed

Participate in an on-call rotation to provide after-hours support

Qualifications

BS degree in engineering or scientific discipline, or equivalent (advanced degree preferred)

5–8+ years of relevant service/support experience

5+ years of service engineering or instrumentation support experience

Expertise with Hamilton liquid handlers and laboratory automation systems

Strong experience with Qiagen QiaSymphony, Agilent TapeStation, Illumina sequencers, and other laboratory equipment used within a sequencing workflow

Proven experience authoring and executing PM, IQ, OQ, PQ, and service documentation

Strong knowledge of CLIA, GMP, and regulated environments

Demonstrated experience driving process standardization and scalability

Demonstrated experience driving root cause analysis

Demonstrated experience driving continuous improvements initiatives

Experience with Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma methodologies

Liquid handler programming experience preferred

High-throughput automation/workcell experience preferred

Strong leadership, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills

Ability to travel up to 20%

AI & Digital Fluency

• Demonstrate curiosity, sound judgment, and the ability to critically evaluate and responsibly leverage AI-enabled tools in accordance with company policies, ethical standards, and regulatory requirements to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of work.

Hybrid Work Model:This section is applicable to onsite employees who are eligible for hybrid work location as specified by management and related policies.  Guardant has defined days for in-person/onsite collaboration and work-from-home days for individual-focused time. All U.S. employees who live within 50 miles of a Guardant facility will be required to be onsite on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. We have found aligning our scheduled in-office days allows our teams to do the best work and creates the focused thinking time our innovative work requires. At Guardant, our work model has created flexibility for better work-life balance while keeping teams connected to advance our science for our patients. 

The annualized base salary ranges for the primary location and any additional locations are listed below. This range does not include benefits or, if applicable, bonus, commission, or equity. Each candidate’s compensation offer will be based on multiple factors including, but not limited to, geography, experience, education, job-related skills, job duties, and business need. Primary Location: Redwood City, CA Primary Location Base Pay Range: $127,100 - $174,800 Other US Location(s) Base Pay Range: $108,035 - $148,580 If the role is performed in Colorado, the pay range for this job is: $114,390 - $157,320