At Element Biosciences, we are passionate about our mission to empower the scientific community with more freedom and flexibility to accelerate our collective impact on humanity. We have built a highly efficient product-driven organization where employees can learn, grow, and thrive in a challenging but encouraging environment. We are committed to scientific integrity, collegiality, honesty, objectivity, and openness.
We are looking for a Senior Staff Consumables Mechanical Engineer to lead the architecture, design, and development of next-generation consumables supporting complex genomics instrumentation and workflows. This role is a senior technical leadership position responsible for driving consumables innovation across microfluidics, sample preparation, library preparation, and system integration, while ensuring designs scale reliably to high-volume manufacturing. The Sr Staff Engineer will operate as a technical leader across multidisciplinary teams, balancing deep hands-on engineering contributions with leadership of vendors and internal contributors. This position reports to the Director, Mechanical Engineering and is based in San Diego.
If you possess the following and want to make a meaningful impact, we invite you to explore this role.
Essential Functions and Responsibilities:
- Lead architecture and end-to-end development of biotech consumables, from concept and material selection through prototyping, verification, and transfer to high-volume manufacturing
- Drive design of complex plastic and hybrid consumable assemblies integrating microfluidics, sample and library preparation workflows, and system-level interfaces
- Define and execute design verification and validation strategies, including tolerance analysis, performance characterization, and reliability testing
- Develop consumable solutions enabling precise fluid handling, reagent storage, mixing, metering, dosing, and delivery across complex assay workflows
- Lead prototype development, test fixture design, and iterative evaluation to rapidly converge on robust solutions
- Partner with Systems Engineering, Instrument Engineering, Chemistry, and Operations teams to ensure seamless integration between consumables, fluidics, optics, and instrument subsystems
- Apply strong systems engineering principles to evaluate tradeoffs across consumable, instrument, assay, and manufacturing constraints
- Identify technical risks early and drive structured root cause analysis and resolution across interdisciplinary teams
- Establish best practices for consumable design, DFM/DFA, and development rigor across the organization
- Provide technical mentorship and guidance to engineers and cross-functional partners working on consumables and fluidic systems
- Lead external development and manufacturing partners, including tooling vendors, suppliers, and contract manufacturers
- Drive technical alignment across internal teams including Systems Engineering, Assay Development, Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain
- Influence roadmap decisions by evaluating new technologies, materials, and design approaches
- Support program execution by balancing technical priorities, timelines, and risk mitigation strategies
- Maintain design control documentation, risk assessments, and development records in compliance with quality and regulatory requirements
- Collaborate with Quality and Manufacturing teams to ensure robust design transfer and scalable production processes
- Support continuous improvement activities through data-driven analysis and design iteration
Education and Experience:
- Advanced degree in Engineering or related discipline required; PhD strongly preferred
- 10+ years of relevant industry experience in consumables, microfluidics, medical device, or life sciences instrument development
- Demonstrated technical leadership on complex consumables or fluidic systems integrated with instrumentation platforms
- Strong systems engineering mindset with experience balancing requirements across hardware, fluidics, assay, and manufacturing constraints
- Injection molding and plastic manufacturing expertise, including over-molding, thermoforming, and multi-process assemblies
- Extensive experience with consumable bonding techniques including laser welding, ultrasonic welding, heat sealing, fusion bonding, adhesives, and related methods
- Deep knowledge of plastic and elastomer material selection for chemical compatibility, durability, and manufacturability
- Strong experience in milli- and microfluidic consumable design for precision fluid handling and sample preparation workflows
- Advanced SolidWorks proficiency with strong GD&T application and tolerance stack analysis
- Experience applying FEA, DFMA, FMEA, and structured problem-solving methodologies
- Hands-on prototyping experience including 3D printing, CNC machining, and soft tooling
- Strong data analysis capabilities using JMP, R, Matlab or similar statistical tools
- Experience developing automated or semi-automated test platforms; Python or similar scripting experience preferred
- Familiarity with fill-and-seal technologies and consumables used in biotech or diagnostic systems preferred
Physical Requirements:
- Must be able to lift 25 pounds
Location:
Travel:
Base Compensation
In addition to base compensation, you will be eligible for stock options, discretionary annual bonus, no cost health insurance plans, 401k with company match, and flexible paid time off.
Please Note: Base compensation will depend on multiple factors, including geographic location, qualifications, and experience.
We foster an environment such that all people are afforded the freedom to pursue their passions without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, gender (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, veteran status or any other characteristics protected by law.
