Senior Instrument Control Software Engineer – Python / Robotics / Hardware Integration
Location: San Carlos, CA – Onsite
Experience: 7+ Years
Job Description
We are seeking an experienced Senior Instrument Control Software Engineer to develop, integrate, and stabilize Python-based software for complex scientific instrumentation. The role involves coordinating multiple physical subsystems, including robotics, motion-control systems, microfluidics, cameras, sensors, custom electronics, and firmware.
The ideal candidate will have strong Python and Linux expertise, hands-on hardware/software integration experience, and excellent debugging skills across complex systems. This engineer will collaborate closely with software, hardware, firmware, mechanical, and scientific teams to improve instrument reliability and performance.
Key Responsibilities
Develop, maintain, debug, and optimize Python-based instrument-control software.
Understand and take ownership of components within a large, existing codebase.
Diagnose complex integration issues across robotics, motion control, sensors, imaging, microfluidics, and electronics.
Investigate intermittent failures and perform root-cause analysis using logs, telemetry, and device-state information.
Integrate Python applications with hardware devices, embedded controllers, and custom firmware interfaces.
Implement robust error handling, recovery mechanisms, and system fault management.
Support real-time or near-real-time telemetry processing and event-driven system behavior.
Improve software stability, reliability, observability, and maintainability.
Support integration testing and troubleshooting on physical instrumentation.
Collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams and contribute to technical documentation and architectural improvements.
Required Qualifications
7+ years of software engineering experience, including significant hands-on Python development.
Advanced proficiency in Python for production software systems.
Strong Linux experience, including command-line debugging, process management, logs, permissions, networking, and device interaction.
Proven experience integrating software with physical hardware or embedded systems.
Experience coordinating and controlling multiple hardware components simultaneously.
Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills across complex hardware-integrated or distributed systems.
Experience working with real-time or streaming telemetry.
Understanding of asynchronous programming, concurrency, and event-driven architectures.
Experience interfacing Python applications with firmware, embedded controllers, device APIs, serial interfaces, or network-connected devices.
Ability to quickly understand complex codebases and unfamiliar systems.
Strong software engineering fundamentals, including testing, version control, code reviews, and maintainable architecture.
Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience in scientific instrumentation, laboratory automation, robotics, medical devices, semiconductor equipment, industrial automation, or motion-control systems.
Experience with motors, motion controllers, stages, actuators, and robotic positioning systems.
Experience with cameras, sensors, machine vision, and imaging pipelines.
Familiarity with USB, serial communication, Ethernet-connected devices, CAN, Modbus, or similar hardware protocols.
Experience with custom firmware interfaces, state machines, and device orchestration.
Experience with hardware-in-the-loop testing, simulation, or digital-twin environments.
Experience with telemetry, observability, logging, and system failure analysis.
Familiarity with AWS or cloud-connected instrumentation.
