Date Posted: 07/30/2025
Req ID: 44567
Faculty/Division: Faculty of Arts & Science
Department: Acceleration Consortium
Campus: St. George (Downtown Toronto)
Position Number: 00058096
Description:
About us:
The Faculty of Arts & Science is the heart of Canada’s leading university and one of the most comprehensive and diverse academic divisions in the world. The strength of Arts & Science derives from our combined teaching and research excellence in the humanities, sciences and social sciences across 29 departments, seven colleges and 46 interdisciplinary centres, institutes and programs.
We can only realize our mission with the dedication and excellence of engaged staff and faculty. The diversity of opportunities and perspectives within the Faculty reflect the local and global landscape and the need for curiosity, innovative thinking and collaboration. At Arts & Science, we take pride in our legacy of innovation and discovery that has changed the way we think about the world.
The Acceleration Consortium (AC) at the University of Toronto (U of T) is leading a transformative shift in scientific discovery that will accelerate technology development and commercialization. The AC is a global community of academia, industry, and government that leverages the power of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, materials sciences, and high-throughput chemistry to create self-driving laboratories (SDLs), also called materials acceleration platforms (MAPs). These autonomous labs rapidly design materials and molecules needed for a sustainable, healthy, and resilient future, with applications ranging from renewable energy and consumer electronics to drugs. AC Staff Scientists will advance the infield of AI-driven autonomous discovery and develop the materials and molecules required to address society’s largest challenges, such as climate change, water pollution, and future pandemics.
TheAcceleration Consortium received a $200M Canadian First Research Excellence Grant for seven years to develop self-driving labs for chemistry and materials, the largest ever grant to a Canadian University.
Your opportunity:
Reporting to the Executive Director, Acceleration Consortium and working under the guidance of (Senior) Research Associates , this Lab Technician position will play a pivotal role in supporting research projects focused on medicinal chemistry and will collaborate closely with our interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers. We are seeking a highly motivated and skilled Technical Staff member to join our Medicinal Self Driving Lab’s team. The ideal candidate will have a background in organic synthesis or medicinal chemistry, with experience planning and troubleshooting synthetic routes and performing parallel library synthesis. The ideal candidate should have experiences with one or more of the following: working with automated chemistry equipment (liquid handler, peptide synthesizer, or other), milligram scale synthesis of small molecules, analytical characterization of small molecules with liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and other techniques, purificationof small molecules with flash chromatography or preparative reverse phase liquid chromatography, and lab documentation or other lab management experience.
This is a 2-year term position with the possibility of renewal. This is a 100% onsite position.
Your responsibilities will include:
- Performing lab experiments that requires great precision and attention to many details
- Providing detailed explanations and demonstrating procedures to students and/or employees on labtechniques, experimental procedures and protocols
- Contributing to research findings that are published in academic journals
- Applying established standards when preparing routine samples for research projects and/or experiments
- Preparing, assembling and setting-up material, equipment and supplies used in teaching and/or research labs
- Coordinating routine maintenance of lab equipment
- Providing safety training and ensuring compliance to lab safety procedures and standards
- Serving as a technical resource on laboratory protocols, and experimental procedures and equipment
Essential Qualifications:
- Bachelor's Degree in physical or life sciences (Organic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry, Biochemistry, Analytical Chemistry, Pharmacology, or a related field) or acceptable combination of education and experience. Graduate degree in related field preferred.
- Minimum three years of practical and related wet lab experience with organic synthesis and common analytical techniques (TLC, LCMS, NMR)
- Proficient in planning and executing multistep synthesis of small molecules on a milligram to gram scale
- Experience with parallel synthesis of small molecule libraries
- Experience performing liquid chromatography on both analytical and preparative scales
- Experience with interpreting LCMS data to identify a compound of interest
- Familiarity automated laboratory equipment, including autosamplers or liquid handlers
- Experience with scientific writing potentially including publications, reports, thesis, etc.
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team
- Strong lab management skills with attention to details
- Initiative and strong problem-solving skills
Assets (Nonessential):
- Experience performing basic maintenance on lab equipment (cleaning, minor repairs)
- Experience in cheminformatics, including compound clustering, similarity searching, and molecular docking
- Proficiency and experience with data analysis in Python
- Experience working in a research or industry environment, preferably in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology sectors.
- Familiarity with electronic laboratory notebook software
To be successful in this role you will be:
- Communicator
- Efficient
- Insightful
- Meticulous
- Organized
- Team player
Closing Date: 08/13/2025, 11:59PM ET
Employee Group: USW
Appointment Type: Grant - Term
Schedule: Full-Time
Pay Scale Group & Hiring Zone:
USW Pay Band 11 -- $76,577. with an annual step progression to a maximum of $97,928. Pay scale and job class assignment is subject to determination pursuant to the Job Evaluation/Pay Equity Maintenance Protocol.
Job Category: Engineering / Technical
Recruiter: Ann Yang
Lived Experience Statement
Candidates who are members of Indigenous, Black, racialized and 2SLGBTQ+ communities, persons with disabilities, and other equity deserving groups are encouraged to apply, and their lived experience shall be taken into consideration as applicable to the posted position.
