At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we're on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators to tackle humanity's greatest challenges in four transformative areas:

Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
Climate Change & Managing CO₂
Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

This is ambitious work - work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you'll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs. Together, we push boundaries, embrace complexity, and create solutions to scale ideas from lab to society. Explore more at www.eit.org.

Welcome to the Pathogen Project:

Within this ecosystem, the Pathogen Mission exemplifies EIT's commitment to transformative science. It aims to revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases by leveraging whole genome sequencing (WGS)-based metagenomic and pathogen-specific analytical tools. This remit includes the development of a decentralised, sample-to-answer sequencing diagnostic platform for infectious diseases, enabling rapid and accurate analysis of patient samples without prior assumptions. Supported by Oracle Inc.'s cloud-computing scale and security infrastructure, the Pathogen Mission is progressing towards certified diagnostic products for deployment in laboratories, hospitals, and public health organisations worldwide.

Your Role:

At EIT we are seeking an experienced and detail orientated (Or Senior) Product Development Engineer - Cartridge to help develop next-generation diagnostic technology. In this role, you'll work alongside experts in microfluidics, microbiology, electronics and firmware to design, build and iterate prototype instrumentation for a point-of-care device capable of metagenomic sequencing through a microfluidic cartridge interface.

You will work closely with the Lead Engineer to mature multiple prototype cartridge concepts into a robust, integrated consumable architecture with a clear path toward future product development. This role will focus on simplifying and integrating cartridge designs, improving robustness, usability and manufacturability, and supporting the transition from individual module demonstrators toward an integrated automated platform. You will contribute directly to the development of decentralised diagnostic systems aimed at improving infectious disease detection in hospitals and public health settings worldwide.

Key Responsibilities:

Develop and evolve cartridge architectures to support automated metagenomic workflows and future product development
Simplify and integrate multiple prototype cartridge concepts into robust consumable solutions suitable for automated operation
Design and integrate functional cartridge features including valves, reservoirs, seals, reagent storage, fluidic interfaces and user-facing elements
Work to ensure cartridge designs remain compatible with instrumentation, automation and future product objectives
Identify opportunities to reduce cartridge complexity, dead volume, interfaces and assembly effort while maintaining technical performance
Support integration of cartridges into prototype systems, resolving cartridge-instrument interface issues through hands-on experimentation and engineering
Design and execute structured experiments to evaluate cartridge robustness, usability, repeatability and engineering performance
Investigate and resolve cartridge-related failure modes including sealing, leakage, fluid transfer, reagent handling and assembly challenges
Contribute to improving robustness, manufacturability, usability and reliability of consumable designs through iterative engineering development
Support design reviews with a strong focus on practical engineering trade-offs and future product evolution
Maintain clear documentation of cartridge architectures, engineering decisions and design iterations

Requirements

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

Degree (BEng, MEng, MSc or PhD) in Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Product Design, Microfluidics, Bioengineering or related discipline
Experience working across multiple engineering disciplines to mature early-stage prototypes into robust engineering systems
Experience developing cartridge-based, disposable or consumable products for laboratory, diagnostic or medical device applications

Experience taking engineering concepts through prototype development, testing, iterative refinement and maturation towards robust, manufacturable products

Experience simplifying and integrating complex fluidic or consumable architectures into practical engineering solutions

Experience balancing technical performance with practical engineering considerations such as manufacturability, assembly, usability and robustness

Practical experience designing and integrating mechanical and fluidic features such as reservoirs, seals, interfaces, valves or reagent handling systems into robust consumable architectures

Experience designing products that integrate with external systems such as instrumentation, pumps, sensors or thermal systems

Strong CAD skills with experience producing manufacturable designs

Experience planning and conducting structured experimental investigations

Practical understanding of tolerance stack-up, sealing strategies, mechanical interfaces and design considerations affecting assembly and reliability

Strong troubleshooting and root-cause analysis skills

Comfortable working collaboratively across multidisciplinary engineering and scientific teams

We recognise that candidates may not meet every listed criterion. If your experience aligns with most of the requirements and you are motivated by the mission, we encourage you to apply.

Desirable Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

Experience developing disposable cartridges or consumables for automated laboratory systems
Familiarity with sample preparation workflows such as nucleic acid extraction, host depletion or amplification
Experience integrating fluid handling components such as valves, membranes or reagent storage features
Understanding of contamination control considerations for diagnostic consumables
Experience applying Design for Manufacture (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) principles during product development

Experience consolidating or simplifying multiple prototype concepts into more integrated engineering solutions

Familiarity with rapid prototyping methods including machining, 3D printing or soft lithography

Exposure to regulated product development or medical device design

Experience working in early-stage product development environments

Key Attributes:

Enjoys developing practical engineering solutions that bridge research and product development
Hands-on and comfortable building, testing and iterating physical prototypes
Strong systems thinker who naturally considers how consumables interact with instrumentation, users and future product requirements
Comfortable balancing innovation with practicality, recognising when a robust engineering solution is more valuable than a technically perfect one
Methodical and evidence-driven, using experimental data to guide design decisions
Collaborative and comfortable working across engineering, biology and product development teams
Detail-oriented, with a strong focus on robustness, usability and repeatability
Comfortable balancing technical innovation with pragmatic engineering trade-offs

Benefits

Our Benefits:

Travel allowance
Bonus
Enhanced holiday. Our annual leave allowance is 25 days plus 8 bank holidays and an additional 3 days between Christmas and New Year. You will also have the opportunity to purchase an additional 5 days annual leave in January and July.
Pension - Employer contribution 7.5%, minimum employee contribution 5%
Life Assurance.
Income Protection
Private Medical Insurance as standard for you, your partner and any dependents. Including hospital Cash Plan
Employee discounts
Electric car scheme
Nursery Salary Sacrifice scheme
Cycle to Work Scheme

Family Planning

Neurodiversity support including advise and assessments

Coaching & Therapy services

Working Together - What It Involves:

You must have the right to work permanently in the UK with a willingness to travel as necessary. In certain cases, we can consider sponsorship, and this will be assessed on a case-by-case basis
You will live in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford (or be willing to relocate)
This is an onsite role

(Senior) Product Development Engineer (Cartridge) - Pathogen

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