Indigo improves grower profitability, environmental sustainability, and consumer health through the use of natural microbiology and digital technologies. Utilizing beneficial plant microbes and agronomic insights, Indigo works with growers to sustainably produce high quality harvests. The company then connects growers and buyers directly to bring these harvests to market. Working across the supply chain, Indigo is forwarding its mission of harnessing nature to help farmers sustainably feed the planet. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA, with additional offices in Memphis, TN, Research Triangle Park, NC, Sydney, Australia, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and São Paulo, Brazil. www.indigoag.com

The role of ­­­­­­­­­­­­­Director, Automation Engineering will be focused on driving automation solutions to speed and improve R&D at Indigo. As a member of the BioInnovation team, they will be tasked with rapidly creating a strategic automation roadmap, building a high-performing cross-functional engineering team, and immediately executing on key projects and priorities. The ideal candidate will be experienced, empathetic with end users from a variety of backgrounds, capable of using automation engineering to enhance processes and data capture throughout R&D and drive the future of agriculture.

Responsibilities:

• Obtain a deep understanding of all current stage gate processes and key stakeholders within R&D and their automation needs in order to build an automation strategy and living roadmap for future iteration
• Create a hiring plan to build a world-class automation team
• Coordinate with facilities as-needed to find space for new automation machinery and in-house construction
• Reduce FTE load of at least 5-10 assays and increase data collection at least 3x
• Collaborate with Program Management Team to increase capacity for FTEs to work on other projects
• Collaborate within BioInnovation team on machine learning and data capture and integration

Understands and embodies our mission & core values:

• Excited by Indigo’s mission; believes that Indigo can fundamentally change the agriculture industry; can clearly articulate passion for our mission and values
• Optimistic and innovative; solution-oriented; shows no signs of cynicism
• Will be widely viewed as someone who personifies our core values, is committed to them, and leans on them when making decisions. Specifically:
  • Demonstrates a track record of high integrity - doing the right thing, owning mistakes, conducting oneself honestly
  • Values, communicates and interacts with others with high levels of transparency and respect
• Collaborates well across functions; creates an inspiring and collegial work environment

Competencies:

• An adaptable and quick learner in new dynamics; not afraid to ask questions
• Consistently able to see and communicate the “big picture” of a project
• Collaborative and empathetic with end users
• Able to quickly metabolize needs and information from different teams to create an efficient plan of action
• Skilled at breaking down large automation goals into smaller custom solutions that integrate with existing process
• Thinks “outside the box” and inspires similar thinking
• Extremely process driven—able to effectively and strategically troubleshoot design-build-test cycles with business priorities in mind
• Excellent at managing a diverse and multidisciplinary engineering team, and excited about mentorship and teambuilding
• Passionate and nuanced advocate for lab automation
• Effective communication and group coordination skills

Qualifications:

• Graduate degree in Engineering preferred
• Minimum of 6 years of relevant work experience, ideally in biotechnology or pharmaceuticals
• Experience building custom end-to-end hardware/software integrated systems to automate biological experimentation
• Experience with lab robotics on a large scale (machine vision, liquid handlers, rapid prototyping) and control systems integration (Scriptiva, CNC, PID)
• Demonstrated track record of gathering customer needs and providing solutions to fit gathering feedback at each step
• Experience building and leading a team, mentoring and developing direct reports, and collaborating cross-functionally
• Experience working with wet lab biology and biologists
• Basic understanding of biological and chemical sciences
• Experience scaling a pipeline or running a scaled pipeline
• Wide external network (firms, vendors, etc)
• Familiarity with CAD (AutoCAD, Solidworks)