Automation Engineer, Wet Lab

• Company: Differential Bio
• Location: Munich, Germany
• Employment type: Full time, hybrid
• Department: Lab Automation
• Reports to: Founder & CTO

About Differential Bio

Differential Bio’s mission is to unlock the potential of the bioeconomy by fixing how biological R&D and scale-up are done.

Today, bioprocess development is slow, expensive and limited by the economics of lab hardware. A typical system runs 4, 8 or 24 bioreactors in parallel, and a single run can cost anywhere from hundreds to several thousand dollars. Differential Bio’s ambition is different: 100 parallel bioreactor runs at around $10 per run.

Radically reducing the cost per insight changes what is possible. Instead of running a handful of carefully selected experiments, the team generates dense, standardised datasets across thousands of conditions. It automates high-throughput data generation, then uses these proprietary datasets to train AI models that understand how bioprocesses behave across conditions and scales – with the long-term goal of building a digital twin of fermentation at any scale.

The team has already built two end-to-end automated fermentation pods that operate continuously and generate experimental data every week. Being vertically integrated all the way down to the physical lab has proven to be a major advantage.

Role summary

This is the first role at Differential Bio dedicated entirely to lab automation. As Automation Engineer, Wet Lab, you will take over this domain from the founder and CTO, Martin, report directly to him, and own how the automation platform develops from here.

It offers high autonomy, difficult engineering problems, the freedom and resources to solve them properly, and a mission worth the hard work.

This is not a role for someone who wants to select the next six-figure laboratory automation system from a catalogue. Differential Bio wants someone who looks at a €500,000 solution and asks: why does this cost €500,000? What problem are we actually solving? Could we achieve the same outcome – or a better one – for a fraction of the cost and at 10x the scale?

Sometimes the answer will be an established lab instrument. Sometimes it will be an industrial robot, a €50 sensor, a 3D-printed part and some clever engineering. Your opportunity is to help completely rethink how lab automation is done and build the infrastructure that makes biological R&D dramatically faster and cheaper.

Key responsibilities

• Own lab automation at Differential Bio end-to-end, from creating individual components to developing complete new automated fermentation systems, including technical decisions, experimentation, suppliers and budget.
• Drive the ambition to dramatically increase experimental density while reducing the cost per experiment and cost per insight.
• Translate wet-lab workflows into reliable, scalable automation together with scientists, software engineers and ML engineers.
• Make pragmatic build vs. buy vs. modify decisions instead of defaulting to expensive, closed laboratory automation platforms.
• Prototype and build fermentation pods and small bioreactors yourself, using 3D printing and the in-house workshop.
• Evaluate and integrate robots, liquid handling systems and emerging automation technologies, working directly with manufacturers to adapt or co-develop around requirements.
• Continuously improve reliability, throughput, maintainability and cost as the automation platform scales.

Qualifications

Differential Bio cares more about how you solve engineering problems than about a specific degree or career path. You should:

• Have evidence of excellence: 4+ years of experience in lab automation, robotics or other automation projects involving real hardware – or an equivalent track record of serious hobby projects where you have built, modified, automated and debugged physical systems yourself.
• Be a tinkerer: someone who enjoys opening the box, understanding how something works, modifying it and building something better when necessary.
• Be comfortable with robotics, sensors, actuators, mechanical design, electronics, embedded systems or related technologies.
• Be able to move quickly between disciplines and collaborate with wet-lab scientists, automation specialists, software engineers and ML engineers.
• Be comfortable with ambiguity and high autonomy – outcomes are defined, and you have substantial freedom to determine how to achieve them.
• Combine creative engineering with a strong focus on reliability and repeatability.

Nice to have

Experience with laboratory automation, bioreactors, liquid handling, CAD, 3D printing, Python, PLCs, machine vision or industrial automation is a plus – but not a requirement.

This is a demanding job. The problems are hard, the ownership is real, and there will not always be a playbook to follow. Differential Bio is looking for someone who enjoys that responsibility – with the curiosity, energy and determination to keep digging until something works.

Benefits

• Build something fundamentally new: help move lab automation away from boutique, over-engineered systems toward high-density biological data factories.
• High ownership: own the lab automation stack, technical direction, suppliers and significant parts of the automation budget.
• Real freedom to build: 3D printers, workshop capabilities, testing space and the budget to buy robots and hardware when experimentation requires it.
• Direct impact: work closely with the founder and CTO and shape one of Differential Bio’s core technological advantages.
• Competitive compensation through salary and stock options.
• eGym WellPass membership.