Senior Engineer, IT Lab Support
Moderna · Norwood, Massachusetts, United States · onsite
The Role:
Joining Moderna means advancing mRNA science to transform medicine. Work with exceptional global teams on a broad pipeline and build a career that makes a real difference for patients.
Moderna is strengthening its presence in Norwood, Massachusetts, a cornerstone of our manufacturing and operational excellence. Our Norwood campus translates mRNA science into scalable impact, supporting the global delivery of our medicines. We welcome talent ready to drive innovation and make a meaningful difference for patients worldwide.
You will take technical ownership of the computer hardware ecosystem supporting Moderna’s Research and Technical Development laboratories, spanning standalone laboratory systems, instrument controllers, client hardware, printers, and enterprise-connected platforms. Working with a technology-agnostic and solution-oriented mindset, you will engineer reliable, secure, compliant, and scalable laboratory computing environments throughout their full lifecycle.
This individual contributor role sits at the intersection of laboratory science, infrastructure engineering, cybersecurity, and digital strategy. You will combine strong engineering discipline, deep laboratory domain knowledge, and systems thinking to maintain interoperability, data integrity, performance, availability, and business continuity across diverse laboratory technologies.
You will also help shape the evolution of Moderna’s digital laboratory environment, identifying opportunities to simplify workflows, improve the scientist experience, and responsibly bring Generative AI-enabled tools and emerging digital capabilities closer to laboratory support and engineering workflows where they can create measurable value.
Here's What You'll Do:
- Serve as technical owner for computer hardware and printers used within laboratory systems across multiple platforms supporting Research and Technical Development laboratories.
- Own the lifecycle of laboratory computer hardware and operating systems, including configuration, upgrades, patching, maintenance, technology refresh, and retirement.
- Manage the lifecycle of laboratory instrument controller systems and associated client hardware, including operating system upgrades, vendor coordination, hardware refresh, and cybersecurity hardening.
- Ensure laboratory computing systems consistently meet defined requirements for performance, availability, reliability, security, scalability, interoperability, and compliance.
- Support and maintain backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity strategies for laboratory systems, helping protect critical scientific operations and data.
- Track incidents and service requests and develop and maintain high-quality knowledge base documentation that improves support consistency and organizational learning.
- Provide advanced technical support for complex laboratory system issues, applying structured engineering troubleshooting and root cause analysis to identify and resolve underlying problems.
- Support Change Management activities in alignment with Moderna IT governance standards, ensuring modifications to laboratory systems are implemented in a controlled and traceable manner.
- Support data integrity and traceability across laboratory platforms and help maintain secure, reliable data flows between standalone systems and enterprise environments.
- Contribute to data governance initiatives and master data harmonization efforts that strengthen consistency and usability of laboratory information.
- Identify opportunities to streamline laboratory workflows, reduce technical friction, improve system usability, and enhance the overall user experience for scientists and laboratory teams.
- Contribute to the development and execution of Moderna’s digital laboratory strategy and roadmap, bringing an engineering perspective to platform evolution, lifecycle priorities, and future-state capabilities.
- Explore appropriate opportunities to apply Generative AI tools within laboratory technology support, engineering analysis, documentation, knowledge management, troubleshooting, and workflow optimization while maintaining security, data integrity, and compliance expectations.
- Serve as a trusted technical advisor to laboratory and digital stakeholders, translating scientific workflows and business requirements into secure, scalable, and supportable engineering solutions.
- Clearly articulate technical trade-offs, risks, constraints, dependencies, and lifecycle implications to scientific, technical, and business stakeholders.
- Partner closely with laboratory scientists, lab administrators, IT infrastructure teams, cybersecurity teams, and external vendors to deliver secure, compliant, reliable laboratory systems.
- Partner with Cybersecurity to implement secure architectures for laboratory networks, connected systems, and technology deployments, including appropriate cybersecurity hardening.
- Coordinate effectively with technology vendors to support upgrades, lifecycle planning, compatibility assessments, troubleshooting, and sustained operation of laboratory instrument computing environments.
- Mentor junior engineers and provide technical guidance, sharing laboratory systems expertise, engineering practices, and structured approaches to troubleshooting and lifecycle management.
- Operate as an individual contributor based in Norwood, Massachusetts, while building strong cross-functional relationships across Moderna’s Research and Technical Development organization.
The key Moderna Mindsets you’ll need to succeed in the role:
- “We behave like owners. The solutions we’re building go beyond any job description.”
- “We digitize everywhere possible using the power of code to maximize our impact on patients.”
What You’ll Need (Basic Qualifications)
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field, or equivalent experience.
- 3-7 years of hands-on experience supporting laboratory equipment controller PCs and/or enterprise platforms within pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or medical device environments.
- Demonstrated experience supporting instrument-connected systems where hardware interfaces, firmware versions, vendor drivers, and acquisition workflows must be carefully managed to avoid operational disruption.
- Strong expertise in troubleshooting laboratory instrument communication across Windows-based, Linux-based, and proprietary operating systems.
- Proven experience working with laboratory applications (web-based and client-server) and their underlying database architecture.
- Experience with IT service management and collaboration tools such as ServiceNow, JIRA, or Confluence.
- Strong understanding of IT infrastructure, including virtualization, networking, cybersecurity, and system architecture principles.
- Understanding of secure lab network architecture and endpoint hardening.
What You’ll Bring to the Table (Preferred Qualifications)
- Experience supporting hybrid laboratory environments spanning instrument-connected on-premises systems (including virtualized infrastructure such as VMware) and cloud-based platforms (e.g., AWS).
- Familiarity with GxP-regulated laboratory environments and computer system validation (CSV) practices.
- Experience working directly with laboratory instrument vendors to evaluate compatibility, coordinate upgrades, and resolve integration constraints.
- Familiarity with research data lifecycle management, including raw data management, data capture, metadata standards, traceability, and reproducibility considerations.
Our Working Model
As we build our company, we have always believed that an in-person culture is critical to our success.
This role is 100% onsite, reflecting the importance of being physically present to support the work, collaborate closely with colleagues, and contribute to our site-based operations.
Working onsite enables real-time collaboration, strong team connections, direct ment