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Element Biosciences is seeking a Director of Software Engineering to lead a cross-functional engineering team building software for multi-omic instruments and platforms. This is a hands-on director role split roughly 60% individual contributor and 40% people management.
You will lead a team spanning frontend (React), backend (Go), cloud services (AWS), instrument software, CLI/API, and agentic tooling. Responsibilities include setting technical direction, owning hiring and career development, managing team budget and capacity, and driving architecture across customer-facing products and internal tools. You'll champion AI-forward development practices—Cursor, Claude, and agentic SDLC workflows—and help scale these practices across the broader software organization.
As a hands-on leader, you'll contribute production-grade code across the full stack, run design reviews, own end-to-end product delivery, and debug complex cross-system issues. You'll partner closely with product, chemistry, hardware, and adjacent software teams to translate multi-omic workflows into scalable software. The role also requires expertise in regulated software development: you'll own or oversee design controls, verification and validation, risk analysis, and traceability for FDA and EU-regulated products (IEC 62304, ISO 13485, IVDR, 21 CFR Part 820), and partner with regulatory affairs on audits and submissions.
You bring 10+ years of software engineering experience with 3+ years directly managing teams. You have a track record shipping production-grade software across frontend, backend, cloud, and workflow orchestration. You're fluent in Go, React, MongoDB, Redis, gRPC, GraphQL, Temporal, Ubuntu, and AWS—or close equivalents. You use AI coding assistants daily and have demonstrated experience introducing or scaling agentic workflows within a team. Experience shipping instrumentation software, cloud SaaS, and CLI/API tooling is expected. You're comfortable moving fast in research markets while holding the line on design controls and V&V in regulated contexts. This role reports to the VP of Software and requires daily onsite presence in San Diego.
