Staff Engineer, Lab Operations - Guardant Health

Guardant Health is a leading precision oncology company focused on helping conquer cancer globally through use of its proprietary tests, vast data sets and advanced analytics. The Guardant Health oncology platform leverages capabilities to drive commercial adoption, improve patient clinical outcomes and lower healthcare costs across all stages of the cancer care continuum. Guardant Health has commercially launched Guardant360®, Guardant360 CDx, Guardant360 TissueNext™, Guardant360 Response™, and GuardantOMNI® tests for advanced stage cancer patients, and Guardant Reveal™ for early-stage cancer patients. The Guardant Health screening portfolio, including the Shield™ test, aims to address the needs of individuals eligible for cancer screening.

About the Role:

To enable Guardant Health to lead the disruption of cancer treatments through non-invasive cancer screening, the Post Deployment Development Team is seeking a highly motivated Engineer to help support the evolution of the Guardant Health Shield product/assay from its current state into a high throughput production line. The Staff Engineer, Lab Operations, will contribute to analyze current Shield operations workflows and recommendations areas for process improvement. 

As a Staff Engineer, you will support Shield Clinical Lab Operations, interface cross functionally, with members of various departments including Technology Development, Quality Assurance, Bioinformatics, and Automation Clinical Development. This position will contribute to project planning, continuous improvement activities, and process troubleshooting. They will drive changes to improve and support operations and establish additional capabilities such as: improved lab workflows, assembly methods, Turn-Around-Time, cost reduction, cost management etc.  An ideal candidate would have a high level of knowledge of Assay/Process development and good documentation practice (GDP). 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Serve as a liaison between Operations, Technology Development, Automation, etc. 

• Advocate for the needs of the Lab Operations department. 

• Collaborate with all functions within project teams. 

• Analyze data and troubleshoot issues with cross functional team members. 

• Solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists. 

• Drive continuous improvement within Screening Operations to reduce test turnaround time, analyze & reduce COGS, and improve product quality. 

• Determine and implement effective ways to create and execute improvement plans for Guardant Health’s screening product. 

• Present updates, write protocols, reports, and SOPs. 

• Support a Quality first culture by initiating and supporting the improvement and continuation of initiatives driving accuracy and consistent adherence to regulations. 

• Have a ‘change-agent’ mindset. 

• BS degree in Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Engineering, or related discipline. 

• 8+ years’ experience in the Biotech/Pharmaceutical/Diagnostics Industry with expertise in manufacturing operations, process development, and process troubleshooting. 

• Must be able to work cross functionally in teams, or with individuals, on designated projects, to help clients and operators achieve sustainable results. 

• Proficient in biological sample handling as needed (i.e. tissue, blood, biofluid, etc.). 

• Data analysis, visualization, and reporting skills utilizing various software applications. 

• Molecular biology lab skills: Nucleic Acid Isolation, PCR preparation, and NGS Sequencing 

• Excellent written and oral communication skills. 

• Experience with process automation for nucleic acid extraction, NGS sample preparation assays, and sequencing platforms is a plus. 

• Highly skilled in visualization tools, SharePoint, Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio, Project). 

• Experience with development under FDA regulated environment is a plus 

• Experience with data analysis in JMP, R, and python is a plus 

Hybrid Work Model: At Guardant Health, we have defined days for in-person/onsite collaboration and work-from-home days for individual-focused time. All U.S. employees who live within 50 miles of a Guardant facility will be required to be onsite on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. We have found aligning our scheduled in-office days allows our teams to do the best work and creates the focused thinking time our innovative work requires. At Guardant, our work model has created flexibility for better work-life balance while keeping teams connected to advance our science for our patients.

For positions based in Palo Alto, CA or Redwood City, CA, the base salary range for this full-time position is $133,600 to $180,400. The range does not include benefits, and if applicable, bonus, commission, or equity.

Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including, but not limited to, job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. If you are selected to move forward, the recruiting team will provide details specific to the factors above.

Employee may be required to lift routine office supplies and use office equipment. Majority of the work is performed in a desk/office environment; however, there may be exposure to high noise levels, fumes, and biohazard material in the laboratory environment. Ability to sit for extended periods of time.

Guardant Health is committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our hiring processes for candidates with disabilities, long-term conditions, mental health conditions, or sincerely held religious beliefs. If you need support, please reach out to Peopleteam@guardanthealth.com

Guardant Health is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

To learn more about the information collected when you apply for a position at Guardant Health, Inc. and how it is used, please review our Privacy Notice for Job Applicants.

Please visit our career page at: http://www.guardanthealth.com/jobs/

#LI-CS4