Field Applications Scientist I

Summary

Join Watchmaker Genomics as a Field Applications Scientist I, North America! This full-time, remote position (with up to 75% US travel) reports to the Field and Automation Program Manager. You will provide pre- and post-sales technical and scientific support for NGS and precision enzyme products, collaborating with the sales team, presenting at conferences, and contributing to marketing. Deep technical understanding of NGS products and workflows is crucial, along with strong customer interaction and problem-solving skills. This role involves gathering customer feedback to drive product innovation and working closely with the commercial team to foster collaborations. The ideal candidate is self-motivated, proactive, and thrives in a fast-paced environment.

Requirements

• Relevant experience providing field-based applications support for next-generation sequencing (NGS) experiments and/or other advanced genomics applications. Relevant experience includes working in high-throughput sequencing labs developing, optimizing and troubleshooting NGS workflows both manually and on automated platforms and managing large sequencing projects
• Proactive approach with a can-do attitude, and be great communicators with a high level of self-motivation
• Strong desire to continually improve, learn and collaborate to help WMG stay at the forefront of exciting new applications spaces
• Demonstrate a high standard experience to our customer base, excel in the art of troubleshooting, and take ownership and pride in their work
• Courage to initiate discussions with customers to challenge the current “status quo” and have the confidence to drive change and adoption of new concepts
• MSc in Genetics, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry or related field
• 4+ Years experience within NGS field applications
• Advanced knowledge of and practical experience with experimental design, applications/assay development, NGS library preparation, PCR, qPCR, good lab practices, and troubleshooting. Automation knowledge of NGS assays is a plus
• Ability to travel potentially up to 75% of time
• Strong customer consultative skills which includes application of scientific knowledge and analysis, exceptional customer engagement, and fostering of customer relationships
• High self-motivation and must have demonstrated ability to work in a collaborative team environment
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, multiple languages is a plus
• Excellent organizational, prioritization and time management skills
• Outstanding attention to detail

Responsibilities

• Provide pre- and post-sales technical and scientific support, both onsite and remote, for customers across WMG’s NGS and precision enzyme product portfolio
• Engage in North America-based travel (up to 75%) activities including co-travel with sales team members, meetings with key customers, providing training and troubleshooting, and participating in trade shows/conferences. Possible opportunity for international travel
• Provide deep product knowledge to solve customer challenges. Triage issues, troubleshoot investigations, and identify solutions
• Create training material, and present technical content to new or current customers
• Inform and implement processes as a part of our North American-field based scientific support organization
• Maintain expert-level knowledge of current and new NGS products and workflows, our precision enzyme portfolio and associated applications, competitor products and NGS automation support offerings
• Provide customer and market feedback on WMG products; Identify and communicate unmet customer needs that will aid in the development of new and innovative products
• Work closely with the commercial team to identify and support collaborations with leading research institutions and industry partners to accelerate the sales cycle, including both pre-sales and post-sales troubleshooting
• Support marketing activities including generation of customer-facing technical content (i.e. posters, app/tech notes, white papers, webinars) as well as participating in and presenting at trade shows/conferences
• Participate in sales, marketing, and product strategy meetings when appropriate
• Follow best practices and documentation requirements for customer-related activities and events in CRM
• Additional duties as required within the remit and responsibilities of the role

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with CRM software (particularly Salesforce.com) highly desirable

Benefits

• Base compensation for the Field Applications Scientist role starts at $90,000 - $120,000 + bonus + equity
• Flexible Time Off
• Holidays
• Employer covers 75% of base medical plan with buy-up options
• Employer paid dental
• Employer paid vision
• Employer paid $25,000 life/AD&D policy
• Paid parental leave
• 401(k) retirement plan with a 4% match