Senior Associate Scientist, Automation Specialist

Working with Us
Challenging. Meaningful. Life-changing. Those aren’t words that are usually associated with a job. But working at Bristol Myers Squibb is anything but usual. Here, uniquely interesting work happens every day, in every department. From optimizing a production line to the latest breakthroughs in cell therapy, this is work that transforms the lives of patients, and the careers of those who do it. You’ll get the chance to grow and thrive through opportunities uncommon in scale and scope, alongside high-achieving teams. Take your career farther than you thought possible.

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The Protein Homeostasis Thematic Research Center at BMS is a fundamental Oncology research engine delivering oncology and hematology therapeutics to patients. The TRC has a major focus on exploiting BMS’ expertise in protein degradation to discover and develop therapies aimed at tumor intrinsic vulnerabilities and mechanisms of resistance to existing cancer therapeutics. This focus on protein degradation allows us to attack protein classes that were previously deemed undruggable.

Position Summary:

The Protein Homeostasis Thematic Research Center at BMS Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) is actively seeking a highly motivated and technically skilled Senior Associate Scientist, Automation Specialist to join our early drug discovery team in San Diego. The successful candidate will play a key role in developing, optimizing, validating, and implementing automated laboratory workflows that support next-generation sequencing (NGS), molecular biology, cell-based assays, and patient-derived organoid culture models for early drug discovery.

This position requires hands-on expertise with liquid handling robotics and integrated laboratory automation platforms, along with the ability to translate manual benchtop protocols into robust, scalable, reproducible, and user-friendly automated workflows. The ideal candidate will bring a strong problem-solving mindset, excellent attention to detail, and the ability to collaborate effectively with scientists across disciplines to improve workflow efficiency, throughput, reproducibility, and data quality.

The candidate will support automation initiatives across Protein Homeostasis and Sequencing Research & Genomics (SRG) by serving as a key automation point person for NGS, cell and organoid culture, assay development, sample preparation, as well as drug- and genetic-screening workflows. In this role, the candidate will partner closely with scientific teams to build standardized and automation-enabled experimental platforms that increase throughput, strengthen operational reliability, and enable more efficient target identification and validation. This position offers an exciting opportunity to contribute directly to innovative early drug discovery programs and help advance therapeutic discovery through high-quality, scalable automation solutions.

Position Responsibilities

In the role as a Senior Associate Scientist within the Sequencing Research & Genomics team, the ideal candidate will:

• Integrate Liquid Handling Robotics: Seamlessly incorporate liquid handling robotics (such as Beckman-Coulter Biomek i7 & Dynamic Devices Lynx) with supporting instrumentation to execute Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), molecular/cellular biology, and organoid culture workflows.

• Translate Benchtop Protocols into Automated Workflows: Partner with scientists to convert benchtop protocols into automated workflows by helping clarify assay requirements and critical process parameters, programming stepwise methods, and validating performance through dry/wet runs and fit-for-purpose testing.

• Automate Standardized Assays: Validate and deploy automated workflows for various standardized assays, including DNA/RNA purification, NGS library preparation, qPCR, cell and organoid passaging, media changes, cell-based viability assays, high-content cell imaging, sample normalization, and other assay readouts.

• Enable Scalable NGS and Screening Workflows: Improve throughput, reproducibility, sample tracking, process robustness, and data integrity across automated sample preparation and assay execution.

• Support User-Friendly Process Design<