Associate Scientist, R&D - Natera

POSITION SUMMARY: 

Join Natera's Molecular Biology product development team to transition scientific concepts into scalable, high-throughput automated oncology diagnostics. In this role, you will work across functional teams to advance our cell-free DNA oncology product portfolio, directly contributing to our mission of changing disease management through proactive testing. We look for a rigorous, execution-focused scientist who connects molecular biology principles directly to clinical oncology diagnostics and wants to own the design, validation, and post-launch performance of clinical assays. This position requires the flexibility to step in outside standard operating hours when necessary to resolve critical automation or assay failures, ensuring patient sample turnaround times remain unaffected. You will develop and launch high-throughput automated assays, balancing scientific precision with the execution speed required for clinical patient care.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Design, develop, and validate automated high-throughput Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) assays to be run in a commercial CLIA laboratory
• Own post-launch assay performance by troubleshooting production issues and executing root-cause analysis on automation, reagent, peripheral equipment, and assay failures
• Take ownership of designing and executing moderate to high complexity studies, including stability, guard-banding, reproducibility, repeatability, and validation
• Maintain complete documentation of experimental results, supporting project verification and timely execution
• Write clear technical documentation and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and train clinical laboratory operations operators on protocols
• Oversee formal assay and automation validation activities
• Identify areas for continuous improvement and actively contribute to introducing better practices to optimize production workflows and shorten clinical turnaround time (TAT) for patient samples

QUALIFICATIONS: 

• BA/BS degree with 6+ years of experience, or MS degree with 3+ years of experience in assay development and automation for genomics
• Demonstrated track record of development and validation of automated protocols for CLIA regulated environments

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES: 

• Strong understanding of the chemistry underlying nucleic acid extraction, PCR, NGS library preparation, and hybrid capture technologies
• Hands-on experience in reagent preparation and quality control for NGS-based assays
• Experience implementing, optimizing, and troubleshooting high-throughput automated assays utilizing liquid handling robotics
• Statistical data analysis experience using JMP is required; bioinformatics programming languages such as Python or R are a plus
• Strong individual contributor who takes ownership of individual experiments while collaborating across functions to meet shared team goals
• Experience working in a regulated laboratory environment under CLIA/CAP, NYSDOH, or IVD guidelines is preferred
• Clear communication and precise organizational, record-keeping, and planning skills to train laboratory operators and maintain clinical quality standards
• Ability to collaborate cross-functionally with adjacent internal groups, including CLIA, laboratory operations, Quality Assurance, Automation, and Research