Senior Instrument Control Software Engineer - Python / Robotics / Hardware Integration

Key Responsibilities
 Develop, maintain, debug, and improve Python-based instrument-control software.
 Quickly understand and take ownership of portions of a large existing codebase.
 Diagnose failures involving interactions between software and multiple hardware
subsystems.
 Debug complex integration issues across robotics, motion control, sensors,
imaging, microfluidics, and custom electronics.
 Investigate intermittent and difficult-to-reproduce instrument failures.
 Improve stability, reliability, observability, and fault handling throughout the
instrument-control platform.
 Integrate Python applications with hardware devices and custom firmware
interfaces.
 Work with real-time or near-real-time telemetry generated by multiple instrument
components.
 Analyze logs, telemetry, device state, and system behavior to identify root causes.
 Develop robust error recovery and fault-management mechanisms.
 Collaborate directly with firmware, electrical, mechanical, systems, scientific, and
software engineers.
 Support instrument integration, testing, and troubleshooting on physical hardware.
 Improve documentation and engineering knowledge transfer within the instrument-
control codebase.
 Contribute to architectural improvements as the platform matures.

Required Skills

 7+ years of software engineering experience, with significant hands-on Python
development.
 Advanced proficiency with Python in production systems.
 Strong Linux experience, including command-line debugging, processes,
permissions, networking basics, logs, and device interaction.
 Demonstrated experience integrating software with physical hardware or embedded
systems.
 Experience controlling or coordinating multiple hardware components
simultaneously.
 Strong debugging skills across complex distributed or hardware-integrated systems.
 Experience consuming, processing, or troubleshooting real-time/streaming
telemetry.
 Understanding of asynchronoconcurrent programming and event-driven
systems.
 Experience interfacing Python applications with firmware, embedded controllers,
device APIs, serial interfaces, network-connected devices, or similar systems.
 Ability to understand unfamiliar, complex codebases quickly.
 Strong software engineering fundamentals, including testing, version control, code
review, and maintainable architecture.
 Excellent communication skills and comfort working across software and hardware
engineering disciplines.

Strongly Preferred
 Scientific instrumentation, laboratory automation, robotics, medical devices,
semiconductor equipment, industrial automation, motion-control systems, machine
vision/imaging systems, microfluidics, or hardware-in-the-loop systems.
 Experience with motion controllers, motors, stages, actuators, or robotic positioning
systems.
 Experience with cameras, sensors, or imaging pipelines.
 Experience with serial communication, USB, 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 failure analysis.
 Experience with AWS or cloud-connected instrumentation.