University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Department: Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine

Job Title: Lead Scientist, Organoid Initiative

Position # 00844419 – Requisition #: 38704

Job Summary:

We are recruiting a Leading Scientist focused on automation, workflow engineering, and data integration. This individual will support the platform’s clinical and translational mission by overseeing automated high throughput screening systems, mini-ring organoid assays, imaging and data acquisition workflows, and structured data handoff to analysis teams.

This role works independently and in close partnership with the CCPM Director of the Functional Personalized Medicine Initiative, platform leadership, automation engineers, and computational or bioinformatics groups. The ideal candidate brings experience with automation, plate-based assays, and technology-enabled biology to drive maturity, throughput, quality, and reproducibility across the platform.

Key Responsibilities:

Automation, Mini-Ring Assays, and Workflow Engineering

• Lead development, optimization, and execution of automated workflows including mini-ring organoid screening, liquid handling, high-content imaging, and integrated scheduling systems.

• Configure and validate automation assets (liquid handlers, incubators, imagers, tracs, scheduling software) to ensure precision, throughput, and reproducibility.

• Translate biological assay needs, including mini-ring–based workflows, into executable automation protocols with defined QC checkpoints and error handling.

• Identify bottlenecks or technical issues and implement improvements to drive operational maturity.

Assay Deployment and Data Handoff

• Define metadata standards, file structures, and transfer pipelines to ensure data flows cleanly to analytics and bioinformatics groups.

• Oversee interface between automation systems, internal tracking tools or LIMS elements, and downstream analysis workflows.

• Support reporting structures aligned with clinical translation, decision support, and research endpoints.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Coordinate instrument access and workflow timing with the scientist responsible for sample flow and personnel oversight.

• Work alongside software engineers to refine workflow orchestration, instrument integration, and file delivery standards.

• Act as point of contact for vendor interactions, onboarding of new automation assets, and technical support.

• Provide feedback to computational teams on data quality, edge cases, and instrumentation-driven variability.

Training, Documentation, and Platform Scaling

• Develop SOPs, troubleshooting guides, and runbooks for automated operations and mini-ring workflows.

• Train laboratory personnel on equ