Dir/Sr. Dir - Lab Automation Engineer, Discovery Oncology
Eli Lilly and Company · New York, NY · 3 wk ago
EngineeringFull-time
We need to output HTML fragment with sections for headings where content exists. Must not repeat job title. Use for section headings: About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule. We need to include only sections that have real specific content.
From posting: There's a summary paragraph after title: "We're looking for a Director (Principal) Lab Automation Engineer..." That's about the role. So we can have
for section headings: About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule. We need to include only sections that have real specific content.
From posting: There's a summary paragraph after title: "We're looking for a Director (Principal) Lab Automation Engineer..." That's about the role. So we can have About the role
with that paragraph.
Responsibilities: there is a "Responsibilities" heading with bullet list. So we need Responsibilities
with - each bullet.
About You: could be considered Requirements/Qualifications/Skills. The posting has "About You" with bullet-like sentences. Also "Basic Qualifications" and "Preferred Qualifications". We need to decide which sections to use. We have headings: Requirements, Qualifications, Skills. We need to map content appropriately, not invent. We should preserve all substantive info. Could combine Basic Qualifications under Requirements, Preferred Qualifications under Qualifications, and About You under Skills? Or maybe treat About You as Skills. But we must not create sections with filler. We need to ensure each section has real content.
We have:
- About You bullet points (enjoy working..., solid understanding..., built tools..., influence..., default to designing...). Those are like skills/qualities.
- Basic Qualifications: Bachelor's or advanced degree ... with 10+ years hands-on experience... etc.
- Preferred Qualifications: list of many items.
Thus we can have:
Requirements
for Basic Qualifications.
Qualifications
for Preferred Qualifications.
Skills
for About You (or maybe combine About You into Skills). The About You includes skills and traits.
We must not include Pay, Benefits, Schedule unless actual content. The posting mentions compensation: "Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is $ - $ Full-time equivalent employees also will be eligible for a company bonus..." That's vague, includes placeholder "$ - $". According to rule: do NOT create Pay/Schedule/Benefits sections unless posting actually states them. It does state compensation but it's placeholder "$ - $" which is not specific. The rule says: never emit a heading followed by filler/placeholder text (e.g. "commensurate with experience", "not specified", "N/A", "varies", "TBD") and never create Pay/Schedule/Benefits sections unless the posting actually states them. The compensation is stated but it's placeholder; likely considered filler. So we should not include Pay section.
Benefits: there is a paragraph about benefits: "In addition, Lilly offers a comprehensive benefit program..." That's specific benefits list. So we should include Benefits section.
Schedule: posting says "This is an onsite position (5 days) in New York, NY". That's schedule info (onsite 5 days). So we can include Schedule section.
We must not include boilerplate like EEO, accommodation request, etc. Remove those.
We need to preserve all substantive information. So we need to include the summary paragraph, responsibilities bullets, basic qualifications, preferred qualifications, about you, benefits, schedule.
We also need to include location maybe? The schedule section can include onsite 5 days in New York, NY. Also maybe mention headquarters? Not needed.
We must not repeat job title. No headings for Job ID.
We need to output only HTML fragment.
Let's extract content precisely.
Summary paragraph: "We're looking for a Director (Principal) Lab Automation Engineer to lead the design, architecture, and software/usability layer of the automated systems that power our NY lab's discovery pipeline. As the senior-most individual contributor on automation, you'll work with the AVP to set technical direction and architecture, partner closely with scientists, software engineers, and platform leaders to translate scientific workflows into reliable, scalable automation — and you'll also get hands-on building the software, tools, and interfaces that make that automation genuinely easy for scientists to use day to day. This is a role for someone who's as comfortable in a scientist's workflow discussion as they are in a systems design review or writing the code themselves — someone who wants to help set the technical direction for automation and build the tools that make it usable. This position reports to the AVP-Automation, Discovery Oncology and will be onsite in NYC."
We could keep that as About the role.
Responsibilities bullets: list after "Responsibilities". Let's copy each bullet:
- Set technical implementation and architecture for the software/control layer spanning liquid handling protocols and integrated hardware/software systems across the site
- Own future workcell design as the platform matures beyond its initial build-out, building on the architecture and standards established during early platform development
- Set technical standards and review designs across the automation team, provide hands-on technical mentorship to other engineers without owning their formal management or career development
- Partner with the AVP on requirements gathering and vendor evaluation for the most complex automated systems; own installation, validation, and ongoing performance optimization
- Lead root-cause investigations for the most complex hardware/software integration failures; drive corrective actions and systemic reliability improvements across the platform
- Serve as the primary technical bridge between software engineering, hardware/controls, data teams, and bench scientists to ensure automation and data systems integrate seamlessly
- Design and build user-facing tools — UIs, dashboards, CLIs, or AI-assisted interfaces — that let scientists configure, launch, monitor, and troubleshoot automated runs without needing to understand the underlying instrument control code
- Build and maintain data capture, upload, and validation pipelines that move experimental data cleanly from automated systems into downstream data processing pipelines and analysis tools
- Build monitoring, alerting, and self-diagnostic tooling that surfaces instrument and workflow errors clearly, so scientists and engineers can resolve issues faster and with less escalation
- Write and maintain automation scripts, APIs, and configuration templates that standardize how new workflows get deployed onto existing hardware
- Advise on vendor relationships and evaluate new instrumentation, technologies, and partnerships to keep the automation platform state-of-the-art
We need to preserve all.
About You bullets (converted to list maybe). The text:
"You enjoy working with both scientists and engineers, and can move fluidly between a wet-lab workflow conversation and a systems architecture discussion
You have a solid understanding of data processing pipelines and how automation systems fit into the broader flow of experimental data
You've built tools — using standard programming or AI-assisted harnesses — that make lab automation easier to use, whether that's a UI layer, an instrument control abstraction, or automated data upload/ingestion
You influence through technical credibility and clear communication, not formal authority
You default to designing for the end user (the scientist at the bench) rather than just for the instrument or the codebase; you're a strong software engineer at heart, with enough working knowledge of physical systems to design good interfaces to them"
We can put each as - .
Basic Qualifications:
"Bachelor's or advanced degree in Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, Biology, or related field with 10+ years of hands-on experience in laboratory automation, robotics integration, or a closely related engineering discipline, including experience providing technical mentorship to other engineers"
Preferred Qualifications list: many items. Let's copy them exactly as bullet points after "Preferred Qualifications". The list:
- Working familiarity with liquid handling platforms (Tecan, Beckman Coulter/Labcyte, Agilent, Hamilton, etc) and automated imaging/detection systems
- Strong programming skills (Python, SQL, and/or C#) with demonstrated ability to build production-quality software, not just scripts; experience with scheduling/control software (e.g. Cellario, Momentum, VWorks, Green Button Go, or custom ACS)
- Demonstrated experience designing and qualifying the software/control layer of new automated systems from concept through production
- Experience designing user-facing tools (UIs, APIs, CLIs) for non-software-engineer end users
- Working knowledge of data processing pipelines and how lab systems integrate with downstream data infrastructure, including experience building or maintaining data pipelines that move data from instruments into analysis/storage infrastructure
- Experience building tooling (traditional or AI-assisted) that lowers the barrier for scientists and engineers to use, configure, or troubleshoot automation
- Strong cross-functional collaboration skills; able to communicate technical trade-offs to non-technical and senior audiences
- Experience partnering on vendor relationships or providing input on project resourcing and trade-offs
- Experience applying LLMs/AI agents to instrument control, troubleshooting, or lab software workflows
- Experience with Cellario and Cellario integrations
- Some background in oncology, mammalian cell biology, or related scientific field
- Experience with driver design and implementation
- Experience with observability/monitoring tooling (dashboards, alerting, logging pipelines) applied to lab or industrial systems
- Understanding of PLCs, safety circuits, and power electronics
We need to keep them.
Benefits paragraph: "In addition, Lilly offers a comprehensive benefit program to eligible employees, including eligibility to participate in a company-sponsored 401(k); pension; vacation benefits; eligibility for medical, dental, vision and prescription drug benefits; flexible benefits (e.g., healthcare and/or dependent day care flexible spending accounts); life insurance and death benefits; certain time off and leave of absence benefits; and well-being benefits (e.g., employee assistance program, fitness benefits, and employee clubs and activities). Lilly reserves the right to amend, modify, or terminate its compensation and benefit programs in its sole discretion and Lilly’s compensation practices and guidelines will apply regarding the details of any promotion or transfer of Lilly employees."
We could keep that as Benefits section.
Schedule: "This is an onsite position (5 days) in New York, NY". Also maybe mention "onsite in NYC" earlier. We'll put schedule: Onsite 5 days per week in New York, NY.
We must not include boilerplate like EEO, accommodation request, etc.
Now construct HTML.
We'll have:
About the role
...
Responsibilities
- ...
...
Requirements
Bachelor's or advanced degree ...
Qualifications
- ...
...
Skills
- ...
...
Benefits
...
Schedule
Onsite 5 days per week in New York, NY.
Check that we didn't miss any substantive info: The summary also mentions "This position reports to the AVP-Automation, Discovery Oncology and will be onsite in NYC." That's partly in About the role; we included that. Also we have schedule separate.
We also have "Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, our over 50,000 employees around the globe..." That's boilerplate about company; maybe not needed? It's substantive but could be considered company overview. The instruction: "Preserve ALL substantive information; do NOT invent or summarize away detail." Should we keep that? It's about Lilly overview. It's not directly about the job but it's part of posting. Usually we might keep it as part of About the role? But we already have About the role paragraph; we could add that as additional paragraph. However the instruction says "Do NOT repeat the job title as a heading (the page already shows it) and do NOT put Job ID / requisition numbers as headings — fold minor metadata into a short or drop it." The company overview might be considered minor metadata? It's not metadata but descriptive. The rule says preserve ALL substantive information. So we should include it. Where? Could be part of About the role or a separate section like "About Lilly". But we only have allowed headings list; we could add a paragraph under About the role after the summary. That would preserve it.
Thus About the role section will have two paragraphs: first the
Requirements
for Basic Qualifications.Qualifications
for Preferred Qualifications.Skills
for About You (or maybe combine About You into Skills). The About You includes skills and traits. We must not include Pay, Benefits, Schedule unless actual content. The posting mentions compensation: "Actual compensation will depend on a candidate’s education, experience, skills, and geographic location. The anticipated wage for this position is $ - $ Full-time equivalent employees also will be eligible for a company bonus..." That's vague, includes placeholder "$ - $". According to rule: do NOT create Pay/Schedule/Benefits sections unless posting actually states them. It does state compensation but it's placeholder "$ - $" which is not specific. The rule says: never emit a heading followed by filler/placeholder text (e.g. "commensurate with experience", "not specified", "N/A", "varies", "TBD") and never create Pay/Schedule/Benefits sections unless the posting actually states them. The compensation is stated but it's placeholder; likely considered filler. So we should not include Pay section. Benefits: there is a paragraph about benefits: "In addition, Lilly offers a comprehensive benefit program..." That's specific benefits list. So we should include Benefits section. Schedule: posting says "This is an onsite position (5 days) in New York, NY". That's schedule info (onsite 5 days). So we can include Schedule section. We must not include boilerplate like EEO, accommodation request, etc. Remove those. We need to preserve all substantive information. So we need to include the summary paragraph, responsibilities bullets, basic qualifications, preferred qualifications, about you, benefits, schedule. We also need to include location maybe? The schedule section can include onsite 5 days in New York, NY. Also maybe mention headquarters? Not needed. We must not repeat job title. No headings for Job ID. We need to output only HTML fragment. Let's extract content precisely. Summary paragraph: "We're looking for a Director (Principal) Lab Automation Engineer to lead the design, architecture, and software/usability layer of the automated systems that power our NY lab's discovery pipeline. As the senior-most individual contributor on automation, you'll work with the AVP to set technical direction and architecture, partner closely with scientists, software engineers, and platform leaders to translate scientific workflows into reliable, scalable automation — and you'll also get hands-on building the software, tools, and interfaces that make that automation genuinely easy for scientists to use day to day. This is a role for someone who's as comfortable in a scientist's workflow discussion as they are in a systems design review or writing the code themselves — someone who wants to help set the technical direction for automation and build the tools that make it usable. This position reports to the AVP-Automation, Discovery Oncology and will be onsite in NYC." We could keep that as About the role. Responsibilities bullets: list after "Responsibilities". Let's copy each bullet: - Set technical implementation and architecture for the software/control layer spanning liquid handling protocols and integrated hardware/software systems across the site - Own future workcell design as the platform matures beyond its initial build-out, building on the architecture and standards established during early platform development - Set technical standards and review designs across the automation team, provide hands-on technical mentorship to other engineers without owning their formal management or career development - Partner with the AVP on requirements gathering and vendor evaluation for the most complex automated systems; own installation, validation, and ongoing performance optimization - Lead root-cause investigations for the most complex hardware/software integration failures; drive corrective actions and systemic reliability improvements across the platform - Serve as the primary technical bridge between software engineering, hardware/controls, data teams, and bench scientists to ensure automation and data systems integrate seamlessly - Design and build user-facing tools — UIs, dashboards, CLIs, or AI-assisted interfaces — that let scientists configure, launch, monitor, and troubleshoot automated runs without needing to understand the underlying instrument control code - Build and maintain data capture, upload, and validation pipelines that move experimental data cleanly from automated systems into downstream data processing pipelines and analysis tools - Build monitoring, alerting, and self-diagnostic tooling that surfaces instrument and workflow errors clearly, so scientists and engineers can resolve issues faster and with less escalation - Write and maintain automation scripts, APIs, and configuration templates that standardize how new workflows get deployed onto existing hardware - Advise on vendor relationships and evaluate new instrumentation, technologies, and partnerships to keep the automation platform state-of-the-art We need to preserve all. About You bullets (converted to list maybe). The text: "You enjoy working with both scientists and engineers, and can move fluidly between a wet-lab workflow conversation and a systems architecture discussion You have a solid understanding of data processing pipelines and how automation systems fit into the broader flow of experimental data You've built tools — using standard programming or AI-assisted harnesses — that make lab automation easier to use, whether that's a UI layer, an instrument control abstraction, or automated data upload/ingestion You influence through technical credibility and clear communication, not formal authority You default to designing for the end user (the scientist at the bench) rather than just for the instrument or the codebase; you're a strong software engineer at heart, with enough working knowledge of physical systems to design good interfaces to them" We can put each asAbout the role
...
Responsibilities
- ... ...
Requirements
Bachelor's or advanced degree ...
Qualifications
- ... ...
Skills
- ... ...
Benefits
...
Schedule
Onsite 5 days per week in New York, NY.
Check that we didn't miss any substantive info: The summary also mentions "This position reports to the AVP-Automation, Discovery Oncology and will be onsite in NYC." That's partly in About the role; we included that. Also we have schedule separate. We also have "Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, our over 50,000 employees around the globe..." That's boilerplate about company; maybe not needed? It's substantive but could be considered company overview. The instruction: "Preserve ALL substantive information; do NOT invent or summarize away detail." Should we keep that? It's about Lilly overview. It's not directly about the job but it's part of posting. Usually we might keep it as part of About the role? But we already have About the role paragraph; we could add that as additional paragraph. However the instruction says "Do NOT repeat the job title as a heading (the page already shows it) and do NOT put Job ID / requisition numbers as headings — fold minor metadata into a shortor drop it." The company overview might be considered minor metadata? It's not metadata but descriptive. The rule says preserve ALL substantive information. So we should include it. Where? Could be part of About the role or a separate section like "About Lilly". But we only have allowed headings list; we could add a paragraph under About the role after the summary. That would preserve it. Thus About the role section will have two paragraphs: first the