Research Engineer - Automated Lab Development

Meta•Redmond, WA

24d•$173,000 - $245,000

About The Position

Meta Reality Labs is seeking a Hardware Research Engineer to advance battery and energy storage technologies for next-generation virtual and augmented reality devices, including headsets, wearables, and smart glasses. In this role, you will lead research and development of novel battery cell chemistries, pack architectures, and energy management strategies that push the boundaries of what is possible in compact, high-performance wearable form factors. You will define the long-term technical direction for battery systems across Meta's Reality Labs hardware portfolio, working at the intersection of electrochemistry, thermal management, and consumer electronics engineering.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Robotics, Mechatronics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical discipline
8+ years of hands-on experience designing, scaling, and deploying automated laboratory systems, robotic workcells, or complex industrial testing/characterization hardware
Experience setting requirements for and using software to control physical hardware, manage device state machines, sequence multi-instrument workflows. Experience setting requirements for custom APIs, web services, or serial communication protocols to bridge data and control pathways between different vendor instruments
Experience managing technical definitions, timelines, and deliverables with third-party automation vendors, system integrators, or external OEM partners
Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams (e.g., research scientists, software engineers, hardware engineers) to translate scientific experimental requirements into engineering specifications

Nice To Haves

Direct experience working on automated high-throughput screening (HTS) or "closed-loop" autonomous discovery systems where hardware execution loops were driven by algorithmic/ML inputs
Experience with battery and materials characterization techniques, including electrochemical cell characterization, cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)
Master's or Ph.D. in Robotics, Mechatronics, Computer Science, or a related field with a thesis or research focus on automated physical systems
Experience integrating automated hardware with Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs), Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), or centralized cloud data warehouses
Experience with industrial lab orchestration/scheduling software or data workflow management tools
Familiarity with modern laboratory connectivity standards and middleware protocols

Responsibilities

Define the overall technical roadmap and detailed system architecture to build an autonomous, automated, end-to-end battery research lab, seamlessly integrating both commercially available instruments and custom hardware solutions
Identify gaps where commercial automation solutions fall short. Define strategies for external partner engagement and directly lead the co-development of custom automation approaches with third-party vendors. Own build-out of partner automation solutions within Meta labs. Drive or directly develop application-specific customizations and extensions of automation solutions
Guide development of software by internal and/or external partners to operate individual system components, orchestrate the full system, and provide resulting data to researchers
Translate the needs of internal research scientists into actionable hardware and software engineering specifications for the autonomous lab system, ensuring continuous alignment with core research objectives