Depot Service Engineer III

Work Schedule

Standard (Mon-Fri)

Environmental Conditions

Office

Job Description

At Thermo Fisher Scientific, you'll discover meaningful work that makes a positive impact on a global scale. Join our mission to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner, and safer. We empower our teams with the tools, resources, and autonomy needed to drive innovation and solve some of the world's toughest challenges—from ensuring food safety to advancing life-saving therapies.

Location/Division-Specific Information:

Carlsbad, CA. Relocation assistance is NOT provided. 

*Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship.

*Must be able to pass a comprehensive background check, which includes a drug screen.

Discover Impactful Work:

The Depot Service Engineer plays a critical role in supporting pre-sales instrument demonstration programs within the Life Sciences Group of Thermo Fisher Scientific, by ensuring high-performance, fully functional instrumentation across a diverse portfolio. This position reports into the Sr Manager of ISC Customer Experience and operates within a small, highly collaborative team responsible for instrument quality control, repair, warehousing, and logistics.

In this hands-on and dynamic role, you will not only diagnose, repair, and maintain sophisticated life sciences instrumentation, but will also be an active participant in technical onboarding and integration of new products into the demonstration program. Success requires ownership, organization, and the ability to drive projects from concept through execution.

This role is ideal for an engineer who thrives in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment, is eager to expand beyond the bench, and is willing to step in wherever needed to support team and business priorities.

A Day in the Life:

Instrument Maintenance & Quality

• Perform advanced troubleshooting, repair, and preventative maintenance on complex instrumentation (electronics, fluidics, and mechanical systems).

• Execute and refine quality control (QC) processes to ensure instruments meet demonstration readiness standards.

• Diagnose and repair instruments down to the component level.

• Ability to analyze and present QC/Repair data and identify trends to management and key stakeholders.

New Product Integration

• Lead technical onboarding of new instruments into the demonstration program.

• Develop QC protocols, service documentation, and spare parts strategies to support rapid deployment and repair.

• Partner within the demonstration support team and cross-functionally with R&D, Product Management, and Global Service teams to ensure readiness.

• Track project timelines, lead meetings, and communicate status updates to stakeholders.

Operational & Team Support

• Contribute across the full instrument lifecycle, including QC, repair, inventory management, shipping/receiving, and warehousing.

• Create and maintain Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to drive consistency and efficiency.

• Support demo software/platform integrity and usability.

• Identify and implement process improvements to increase efficiency and scalability.

• Assist in annual instrument replacement forecasting.

Collaboration & Communication

• Work cross-functionally with Product Management, R&D, Engineering, Global Service & Support, and commercial teams.

• Lead or participate in technical discussions, training sessions, and knowledge-sharing initiatives.

• Partner with global teams (including EMEA) to align on best practices.

Why This Role Stands Out

This is not a traditional service engineering role. You'll be part of a small, high-impact team where flexibility, ownership, and collaboration are essential. Beyond technical expertise, you'll have the opportunity to influence processes, lead new product integration, and directly support commercial success.

Keys to Success:

Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or a related field and 5+ years of experience.

• Strong background in instrumentation repair, ideally within the life sciences industry.

• Proven ability to troubleshoot and repair complex systems at the component level.

• Experience with flow cytometry, imaging/detection, cell and gene therapy, or protein purification instrumentation preferred.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Ability to thrive in a small, team-oriented environment with shared responsibilities.

• Self-starter with strong project ownership and follow-through.

• Demonstrated ability to lead projects from initiation to completion.

• Highly organized with strong attention to detail.

• Adaptable and willing to take on responsibilities outside of the core role when needed.

• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

• Effective communicator, comfortable leading meetings and engaging with stakeholders.

• Ability to quickly pivot priorities in response to business needs.

• Growth mindset with openness to coaching and expanding skill sets beyond core engineering responsibilities.

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and internal systems/data tracking tools.

Work Environment & Physical Requirements

• Daily work in an engineering laboratory and warehouse environment.

• Ability to lift up to 50 lbs.

• Comfortable working with PPE and potentially hazardous materials.

• Ability to work independently and meet committed timelines.

Benefits:

We offer competitive remuneration, annual incentive plan bonus, healthcare, and a range of employee benefits. Thermo Fisher Scientific offers employment with an innovative, forward-thinking organization, and outstanding career and development prospects. We offer an exciting company culture that stands for integrity, intensity, involvement, and innovation!

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range estimated for this position based in California is $75,000.00–$100,000.00.

This position may also be eligible to receive a variable annual bonus based on company, team, and/or individual performance results in accordance with company policy. We offer a comprehensive Total Rewards package that our U.S. colleagues and their families can count on, which includes:

• A choice of national medical and dental plans, and a national vision plan, including health incentive programs

• Employee assistance and family support programs, including commuter benefits and tuition reimbursement

• At least 120 hours paid time off (PTO), 10 paid holidays annually, paid parental leave (3 weeks for bonding and 8 weeks for caregiver leave), accident and life insurance, and short- and long-term disability in accordance with company policy

• Retirement and savings programs, such as our competitive 401(k) U.S. retirement savings plan

• Employees’ Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) offers eligible colleagues the opportunity to purchase company stock at a discount

For more information on our benefits, please visit: https://jobs.thermofisher.com/global/en/total-rewards