Senior Software Engineer - Robotics

Cellular Origins

Cell therapies have been shown to cure devastating diseases like cancer by reprogramming a patient’s own immune system, offering hope where there was none before. Giving more patients access to these life-saving therapies requires a revolution in manufacturing and process automation.   

Cellular Origins leading this revolution. Our proprietary technology tackles the challenges of large-scale production with an elegant robotic automation system that cuts costs, reduces labour, eliminates human error, and boosts efficiency. 

About the role  

We’re looking for a strong Senior Software engineer with a passion for robotics to help deliver reliable software for our cell therapy manufacturing platform. You’ll spend your time designing, building, testing and improving software, from interfaces with integrated mobile robots and low-level factory control to factory operation, automation and orchestration.  

You’ll work within the robotics team and closely with colleagues across software and systems engineering teams to turn requirements into working solutions. You’ll contribute to technical design and help resolve delivery challenges, while mentoring other engineers and promoting high-quality software.  

This is a hands-on role. You’ll regularly deploy software onto physical systems, run integration tests with robots and connected bioprocess equipment, and investigate issues at the boundary between software and hardware. Professional robotics experience is welcome, but is not required: we’re interested in your software engineering skills, curiosity and enthusiasm for learning.  

What you’ll do  

• Take technical ownership of the design, architecture, implementation and debugging of maintainable software components, services and interfaces across the robotics platform, driving key architectural decisions and ensuring solutions are scalable, robust and aligned with long-term platform objectives. 

• Integrate software with robots, devices and equipment.

• Develop and run tests on hardware to verify behaviour, diagnose failures and check fixes under realistic operating conditions.  

• Build quality into delivery through test-driven development, automated testing, continuous integration, and code review.  

• Mentor colleagues, share technical knowledge and help junior engineers deliver consistent, high-quality software.  

• Collaborate across disciplines to resolve integration issues and deliver working features at a sustainable pace.  

• Maintain clear technical documentation and test evidence to support development, verification and regulatory requirements.  

  

What you’ll bring  

• Significant experience delivering complex software, with strong skills in design, implementation, testing and debugging across the development lifecycle.  

• High proficiency in Python programming.   

• Strong understanding of object-oriented programming and software design patterns, with experience building backend services or applications and integrating systems through APIs or messaging.  

• Experience with distributed systems using message-oriented or event-based approaches.  

• Good engineering habits, including version control, automated testing and continuous integration.  

• The ability to mentor other engineers, explain technical ideas clearly and collaborate with colleagues across disciplines.  

• A genuine interest in robotics and the willingness to work hands-on with hardware, learning how to test and troubleshoot integrated systems.  

Desirable skills

These are useful additions, rather than requirements. Robotics experience can come from personal projects, study, research or professional work.  

• Robotics or automation experience, including ROS or ROS 2, mobile robots, robotic arms, motion control or machine vision.  

• Experience integrating software with hardware, low-level peripherals or industrial communication protocols such as MQTT.  

• Experience with factory control, automation, orchestration or safety-relevant software.  

• Front-end development, for example using TypeScript or JavaScript with a web framework.

• Experience with virtualisation, containers, cloud services or IoT integration using GCP, Azure or AWS.  

• Experience developing software in medical or biotechnology settings, including verification, traceability and regulatory documentation.  

Cellular Origins is currently based on the TTP Campus, within purpose-built sustainable offices, labs and green surroundings, 10 miles south of Cambridge.  Our working culture encourages entrepreneurship, shared ideas and collaboration, while providing you the freedom to do your best work.   

Our employee benefits include:  

• Annual bonus  
• 25 days holiday  
• Employer pension contribution of 10% of salary 
• Private medical insurance for employees and dependants  
• Enhanced family friendly leave  
• Life insurance worth 6x salary  
• Electric car leasing scheme  
• Cycle to work scheme 
• Season ticket loan