Senior Engineer I, Synthetic Chemistry
Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc.
<div class="content-intro"><p>Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe’s growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our bioengineers make use of an in-house automated foundry for designing and building new organisms.&nbsp;</p> <hr> <p>&nbsp;</p></div><h2 data-pm-slice="1 3 []"><strong>Senior Engineer I, Synthetic Chemistry</strong></h2> <p>Boston, Massachusetts</p> <p>Our mission is to make drug discovery easier to engineer. Ginkgo datapoints is building small-molecule capabilities that pair automation, high-throughput workflows, and scalable data generation.</p> <h2><strong>Role Overview</strong></h2> <p>We are hiring a Senior Engineer I, Synthetic Chemistry to help build and run next-generation synthetic chemistry workflows for small-molecule discovery at Ginkgo. This is a hands-on role for an early- to mid-career chemist who can execute high-quality synthetic chemistry at the bench while helping translate methods into higher-throughput, automation-enabled workflows.</p> <p>The ideal candidate brings strong synthetic organic chemistry fundamentals, practical experience with HTE and parallel synthesis, and comfort working at the interface of chemistry, automation, data, and software. Experience with coding or technical workflow development, along with comfort using modern computational and AI-enabled tools to accelerate experimental design, troubleshooting, and knowledge capture, will be highly valuable in this role. You will contribute to compound production, workflow development, and platform scaling in close partnership with automation, ADME, and cross-functional small-molecule teams.</p> <h2><strong>Key Responsibilities</strong></h2> <ul> <li> <p>Design and execute multi-step synthetic routes to prepare target molecules, intermediates, and analog series in support of small-molecule discovery programs.</p> </li> <li> <p>Plan, run, and interpret HTE and parallel synthesis campaigns to accelerate route scouting, condition optimization, and SAR generation.</p> </li> <li> <p>Translate bench chemistry methods onto automation-enabled workflows, including reagent setup, plate-based execution, control strategies, and workflow QC.</p> </li> <li> <p>Purify and characterize intermediates and final compounds using standard analytical techniques such as LC-MS, NMR, and related methods.</p> </li> <li> <p>Troubleshoot challenging reactions and workflow failures, identify root causes, and improve throughput, robustness, and data quality over time.</p> </li> <li> <p>Maintain clear, accurate electronic laboratory records and experimental documentation suitable for internal knowledge sharing and downstream program use.</p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Collaborate closely with scientists and engineers across synthetic chemistry, automation, ADME, and data to scope work, communicate progress, and deliver compounds and reaction data on timeline.</strong></p> </li> <li> <p><strong>Contribute to SOPs, runbooks, and transferable workflow documentation so new methods can be scaled and adopted across the platform.</strong></p> </li> </ul> <h2><strong>Minimum Qualifications</strong></h2> <ul> <li> <p>Ph.D. in synthetic organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, or a related field with up to 3 years of relevant industry experience, or M.S./B.S. with equivalent hands-on industry experience.</p> </li> <li> <p>Strong hands-on experience in synthetic organic chemist