Application Scientist (Lab Automation & Informatics)

Application Scientist (Lab Automation & Informatics)

Location: Cambridge, London, Amsterdam, or Berlin – you will be expected to work in the office three days per week and travel regularly to other offices for collaboration and project oversight.

About CuspAI

CuspAI is the frontier AI company on a mission to solve the breakthrough materials needed to power human progress. While nature took billions of years to perfect molecules, we are harnessing AI to unlock trillion‑dollar materials breakthroughs in months, not millennia. Our founding team is the most cited in the world, comprised of world‑class researchers in AI, chemistry and engineering.

We are working on some of the hardest and most important challenges including energy, clean water, the future of compute, and carbon capture – and this is just the start of what our \”search engine\” for next‑generation materials will unlock. We invite you to be part of a diverse, innovative team at the intersection of AI and materials science, working to create impactful partnerships that drive innovation, scalability, and industry collaboration. This work matters. Your work matters.

The Role

Due to the ongoing expansion of our experimental partnership network, we are seeking an Application Scientist (Lab Automation & Informatics) to act as the primary technical and scientific bridge between CuspAI’s AI platform and our external lab partners.

We\’re keeping an open mind when it comes to location. You can be based in any of our main offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, or Cambridge/London as long as you are comfortable with regular (roughly monthly) travel to visit our lab partners and our other offices for collaboration and project oversight.

Note that you would be joining as a ‘Member of Technical Staff’, but the job title above hopefully helps to explain the nature of this role.

Your Impact

As someone with experience in lab experiments, you will be building and maintaining the experimental data process that links cutting edge materials synthesis in our partner labs with the intelligence of our AI platform. This is critical for accelerating laboratory campaigns and achieving data‑driven materials breakthroughs.

Working in close collaboration with the teams in our partner labs (sometimes in the lab, sometimes remotely), you will be translating agent‑driven recommendations into clear, automated experimental plans for our lab partners to execute.

Initially, your main focus will be to rapidly onboard and set up 2‑3 of our new lab partners in the first few weeks. This will include establishing robust, two‑way data flows, and helping to curate the data ready to be ingested into the CuspAI databases.

Your broader role will involve tracking and reviewing progress against expected experimental outcomes, and drawing on your own technical knowledge and experience to make recommendations around stop/go/change course decisions for experimental campaigns.

Over time, you will play a key role in optimizing the overall Lab‑ML feedback loop, contributing to platform design, and helping to identify new strategic lab partners.

What You Will Do

Scientific Program Steering

• Act as the crucial bridge between external experimental teams (Chemists, Materials Scientists) and internal technical teams (Data Engineers, AI/ML Researchers).
• Serve as CuspAI’s \”eyes and ears\” in the lab, providing regular technical reports and updates on experimental progress, status, and challenges.
• Translate platform‑driven recommendations into clear, executable experimental plans for our lab partners.
• Communicate with lab teams regularly, including on‑site visits to labs in different regions at the beginning of relationships and during intensive \”sprint visits\” to get labs online.

Process & Platform Optimization

• Champion an automation mindset within our partnerships, driving the efficient integration of experimental workflows with our informatics layer.
• Identify opportunities to improve the overall design of the AI/ML and computational chemistry platform based on real‑world lab feedback and workflow bottlenecks.
• Contribute to market intelligence by identifying and assessing potential new laboratory partners.

Lab Integration & Data Flow

• Develop robust processes to ensure high‑quality, normalized data flows efficiently and securely in both directions (platform‑to‑lab and lab‑to‑platform).
• Configure, test, and maintain API endpoints and scripting interfaces to reliably extract, transform, and load experimental data from partner laboratory systems into the CuspAI platform.

Must Have Skills and Qualifications

• Extensive, hands‑on experimental lab experience in a relevant field such as Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or Experimental Chemistry.
• Demonstrable automation mindset and experience optimizing or building interfaces for laboratory workflows and processes.
• Solid scripting skills (Python) – you will need to handle data extraction, automate data translation between disparate laboratory and informatics systems, and configure APIs for communication between laboratory and CuspAI’s systems.
• Exceptional ability to communicate complex technical concepts effectively to both deeply scientific/technical audiences (AI researchers) and hands‑on experimental teams (Chemists).
• Proven ability to design and steer experimental campaigns based on defined objectives and data feedback.

Bonus Points (But Not Critical)

• Deep working knowledge of web protocols, along with experience with web servers and APIs.
• Experience with high‑throughput experiments (HTE), robotics, and commercial laboratory automation systems.
• Professional‑level coding skills, e.g. Python, Go.
• Existing network or knowledge of potential new lab partners in the materials science/chemical industry and academia.

Additional Considerations

This role could be based in our Cambridge, London, Amsterdam or Berlin offices. Expectation: in the office three days per week with regular travel to other offices for collaboration and project oversight.

What We Offer

• A competitive salary plus equity package so you have a stake in the success of the company
• 28 days holiday
• Professional development budget for scientific conferences and technical training
• Opportunity to work at the forefront of AI‑driven scientific discovery with world‑class researchers
• Direct impact on advancing materials science through cutting‑edge technology
• Collaborative environment bridging AI research, computational chemistry, and experimental science

Join us in shaping the future of materials with AI. Together, we can create groundbreaking solutions for a more sustainable world.

CuspAI is an equal opportunities employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace

We do not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding), veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

We actively encourage applications from all backgrounds and value the unique perspectives and contributions that diversity brings to our team.

Please let us know if you require any specific adjustments during or after the interview process. We will do everything we can within reason to accommodate.