Laboratory Automation Software Engineer - AbbVie

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn. 

About us:

We are SPaRCS (SPecialized Research for Chaotic Systems) – a team of engineers renowned for transcending traditional engineering boundaries to accelerate the discovery of novel therapeutic drugs across all AbbVie research sites. Our group consists of about a dozen members with diverse backgrounds, including mechanical, electrical, and software engineering, optical and microfluidics expertise, and more. We are seeking a talented and curious engineer to work with scientists and other engineers across AbbVie's Research and Development department to create custom software to control research instruments, delivering significant capability improvements to AbbVie laboratories. The successful candidate will utilize their thirst for knowledge and experience to write easy-to-use, graphical software for a wide variety of life science laboratories. This role requires a hands-on approach and on-site collaboration, focusing heavily on software development within a laboratory setting. 

Group Details: 

• SPaRCS creates custom engineering solutions for scientific R&D groups.
• Open and collaborative interactions within the group, allowing members the independent flexibility needed to develop creative solutions for the unique projects that are supported.  
• Diverse expertise, including but not limited to: electrical, mechanical, and software engineering backgrounds.  
• Close collaboration with scientists of various disciplines to design, prototype, and develop innovative solutions that provide a competitive advantage. 
• Project scale ranges from small hand tools to large instruments and systems, often built on liquid handler platforms and robotics. 

Job Responsibilities: 

• A relentless drive to learn and adapt is your most valued asset. 
• Design, develop, and maintain graphical software for controlling complex, custom, robotic and/or electromechanical automated instruments and systems. 
• Contribute to general instrument electrical, software, and mechanical engineering design decisions and problem solving. 
• Blend information from client scientific laboratories with engineering team needs to find innovative solutions. 
• Understand and interpret source code written in multiple computer languages and search documentation necessary to support, maintain, and enhance existing systems. 
• Negotiate and collaborate with instrument vendors to secure access to programming interfaces that enable integration of commercial instruments with customized components.   
• Work on multiple diverse projects simultaneously. 

Required: 

• BS or MS in computer, electrical, or other engineering degree 5+(BS) or 3+(MS) years of experience.  
• Hands-on research experience in developing software for control of complex electromechanical and/or robotic systems. 
• Multidisciplinary understanding of how to solve engineering problems. 
• Enthusiasm across all fields of engineering, and a willingness to tackle unique and novel projects. 
• Ability to think critically and make decisions independently to support the group and external collaborators with programming expertise, on both new and deployed systems. 

Desirable: 

• Proficiency in multiple computer programming languages (e.g., C#, Python, MATLAB, C++, etc.) and with graphical user interfaces (GUI)  
• Demonstrated ability to rapidly debug software written by others. 
• Ability to design and assemble electronic circuits and control wiring. 
• Experience in network architecture design, data science, database design, image processing, and machine learning a plus. 
• Experience working in diverse fields of science including biology, chemistry, and physics. 

Key Leadership Competencies: 

• Builds strong relationships with peers and, cross functionally, with partners outside of team to enable higher performance. 

Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law: ​

• ​This is an on-site position location in AbbVie's Chicago offices. 
• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future.​
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.​
• This job is eligible to participate in our short-term incentive programs. ​

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law. 

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives, serving our community and embracing diversity and inclusion.  It is AbbVie’s policy to employ qualified persons of the greatest ability without discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected group status.

US & Puerto Rico only - to learn more, visit https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/equal-employment-opportunity-employer.html 

US & Puerto Rico applicants seeking a reasonable accommodation, click here to learn more:

https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/reasonable-accommodations.html