Senior Fluidics Engineer

About the role

We are scientists, engineers, and operators who have built the platforms, scaled production, and watched cell therapies fail to reach patients. We are building the technology to bridge this gap.

About You

You are a hands-on fluidics engineer with a genuine love for making things work at small scales. You move comfortably between CAD and the bench, and you take pride in building reliable, reproducible systems. You have direct experience developing and testing fluidic subsystems within life science instruments, from early concepts through prototyping, integration, and verification. You are self-directed, comfortable with ambiguity, and energized by cross-functional collaboration.

Own fluidic subsystem design and development

• Design, prototype, and iterate on the fluidic architecture of our cell processing platform, including pumps, valves, manifolds, flow cells, and disposable cartridge interfaces, from concept through bench validation
• Build and execute test protocols for fluidic performance, covering flow rate accuracy, pressure regulation, dead volume, carryover, and sterility boundary integrity
• Own the data, document in design history records, and drive iteration

Collaborate across hardware, biology, and systems teams

• Work directly with cell biologists to understand how fluidic conditions affect cell health and process yield, and translate findings into engineering requirements and design changes
• Support instrument integration and system-level testing, debugging fluidic behavior in the context of the full instrument, contributing to integration test execution, and driving failures to resolution

Contribute to design control and documentation

• Maintain engineering drawings, BOMs, test reports, and design rationale as living artifacts of the development process

Requirements

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a closely related discipline
• Typically at least 4-8 years of hands-on experience designing and testing fluidic systems in an instrument development or life science product context
• Proficiency with CAD software (SolidWorks, Onshape, or equivalent) for fluidic component and manifold design
• Direct bench experience with pumps, solenoid and proportional valves, pressure sensors, and flow measurement
• Experience authoring and executing structured test protocols, capturing data, and writing engineering reports
• Comfortable handling primary human cells for functional testing of fluidic subsystems
• Demonstrated ability to work independently with incomplete requirements and iterate rapidly on physical hardware

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with microfluidic chip design and fabrication
• Familiarity with sterile fluid path design, aseptic connections, and biocompatibility requirements for cell-contact materials
• Experience designing disposable fluidic consumables, including cartridge interfaces and single-use flow paths
• Background working in an early-stage startup or pre-product R&D environment
• Exposure to design control processes (DHF, design reviews, FMEA) in a regulated or semi-regulated development context
• Familiarity with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools for pre-prototyping analysis
• Experience in the cell therapy, diagnostics, or genomics instrument space
• Familiarity with AI-assisted design, simulation, documentation, or troubleshooting tools

Benefits

We offer our employees comprehensive benefits, including medical, vision, and dental coverage, as well as retirement savings plans. Optional benefits include accident and term life offerings.

Agency Policy

We work directly with candidates and do not accept unsolicited resumes or referrals from recruitment agencies, search firms, or staffing companies. Any resumes submitted by an agency without a signed agreement in place will be considered the property of Exthymic and no fee will be owed. If you are interested in partnering with us on a future search, please contact our HR team directly.