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Nautilus Biotechnology is developing a single-molecule protein analysis platform to democratize access to the proteome and accelerate drug development. We are seeking a Staff Software Engineer to join our instrument control team and take a central role in the reliability and architecture of the software that orchestrates our hardware platform.
In this role, you will own and implement core capabilities within the Instrument Control software stack, including hardware orchestration, instrument state management, workflow engine, and cloud integration. You will help guide the evolution of our instrument software architecture, bringing sound technical judgment to long-term system decisions. You will partner with engineering management to maintain the technical roadmap and work closely with hardware, integration, bioinformatics, and biology teams to translate scientific workflows and customer needs into robust, well-designed software.
As a technical leader, you will develop the technical skills of those around you through design reviews, maintaining high software quality standards, and mentoring with a positive and empathetic approach. You will bring genuine curiosity to the science behind the data, working alongside bioinformaticians and biologists to understand customer goals and how instrument behavior impacts their outcomes. This position reports to the Senior Manager, Image Processing.
Key responsibilities include designing and delivering high-quality software for hardware orchestration and state management, evolving the instrument software architecture to scale with business needs, maintaining technical roadmaps, conducting design reviews and mentoring, and collaborating cross-functionally to understand customer requirements and scientific workflows.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 7+ years of professional experience in a high-performing software engineering organization, plus a relevant 4-year degree or equivalent experience
- Expertise with Python and C/C++
- Strong track record of designing and delivering high-quality software that reliably operates and manages robotic devices, ideally in biotechnology
- Expertise in software architecture; ability to make established codebases more robust, reliable, and maintainable
- Deep knowledge of concurrent/multithreaded programming
- Experience working with Linux device drivers
- Strong CI/CD skills; experience building or maintaining pipelines for automated testing, builds, and artifact management
- Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills; comfortable explaining software concepts to non-technical audiences
- Demonstrated commitment to full lifecycle ownership: design, testing, observability, and long-term maintainability
- Eagerness to learn and develop skills outside typical expertise areas
PLUS (preferred):
- Experience with databases and cloud services for IoT devices
- Experience delivering software to microcontrollers running RTOS and knowledge of low-level communication protocols (TCP/UDP, RS-232/422/485)
- Experience with optics and fluidics systems (TDI cameras, hardware-controlled autofocus, pumps, flow sensors)
- Experience provisioning, securing, and maintaining Linux compute systems deployed in the field
- Prior biotechnology and/or startup experience
