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Instrument Control Software Engineer

Emeryville, CA

Our mission at Ansa Biotechnologies is to revolutionize the way we make DNA. Compared to reading or editing life’s code, writing new code from scratch has remained one of the field’s most elusive challenges. At Ansa, we are putting nature to work, creating novel enzymatic solutions that will redefine how we build DNA. We believe that the biggest challenges our world faces will be solved using biotechnology and that DNA synthesis is the fuel for that transformation. Our enzyme-based approach (published in Nature Biotechnology) promises to dramatically accelerate innovation in biological research and biotechnology, including therapeutics, diagnostics, biomanufacturing, and synthetic biology. We look forward to our DNA products making an impact.

About the Role

We are seeking a versatile Instrument Control Software Engineer to architect and develop the software backbone of our custom hardware systems. This role is a bridge between complex scientific discovery and robust engineering—you will translate high-level research goals into high-performance, production-ready instrument control systems.

The ideal candidate thrives in an interdisciplinary environment where software, chemistry, and high-precision automation intersect. You are as comfortable discussing fluidics requirements with a scientist as you are finding a race condition in a serial communication library.

We are looking for someone who is curious, adaptable, and excited to learn. We don’t expect you to have experience in every single item listed, but if you are enthusiastic about the prospect of gaining that experience in a highly collaborative environment, you are exactly who we want to talk to. We value engineers who are proactive, resourceful, and ready to contribute to success across the entire product lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

  • Software Architecture & Development: Design, build, and test production-grade software for custom in-house instrumentation using C# and WPF.
  • Requirement Translation: Act as the technical liaison for the scientific team; extract user needs and translate them into formal software and functional requirement specifications.
  • Hardware Integration: Develop interfaces for off-the-shelf and custom hardware using third-party APIs, SDKs, and .NET wrappers.
  • Full-Stack Ownership: Take ownership of the software lifecycle, from gathering requirements to maintaining documentation and tracking progress in Jira.
  • Collaborative Innovation: Work closely with mechanical and electrical engineers, scientists and manufacturing staff to debug hardware/software interfaces and ensure seamless system integration.

Required Qualifications

  • Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science,  Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field.
  • Experience: 5–8+ years in software engineering with a proven track record of developing software that controls physical hardware.
  • Core Tech Stack: Advanced proficiency in C#, .NET; experience with WPF is a plus.
  • Instrumentation: Direct experience building custom instrumentation software and integrating with third party devices.

Preferred Skills 

  • Sensor Selection & Integration: Proven ability to evaluate and integrate sensors (pressure, flow, optical, encoders) based on requirements, signal-to-noise ratios, and chemical compatibility.
  • Communication Protocols: Hands-on experience implementing drivers for communicating with third party devices with RS232, RS485, CAN or vendor provided libraries
  • Data & Persistence: Experience with Entity Framework Core (EF Core) and relational database design (SQL) for run-history logging and telemetry.
  • Embedded: Experience developing firmware for embedded devices in C or C++ for the STM32 family of chipsets
  • Vision Inspection: Familiarity with vision inspection using tools like OpenCV or Cognex VisionProElectrical: Familiarity with reading electrical schematics and ability to troubleshoot electrical systems
  • Regulatory & Process: Professional experience working within a formal V&V framework, including maintaining traceability matrices and version-controlled documentation.
  • Testing: Experience developing automated test benches to validate sensor accuracy and system reliability.

 

What We Offer

  • Competitive salary and equity. 
  • Generous benefits package including health, dental, and vision. 
  • Ongoing professional development and training opportunities. 
  • A collaborative and innovative work environment.
  • The opportunity to be part of a company at the forefront of synthetic biology and innovation. 

San Francisco Bay Area Pay Range

$147,000 - $178,000

 

Ansa Biotechnologies is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.

At Ansa, we’re building a community of intelligent and passionate humans that will help us change biotechnology research with our enzymatic DNA synthesis technology. We believe that challenging and trusting one another, and continuously learning are essential to our success. We believe that building diverse, inclusive and psychologically safe spaces are essential to a community culture that yields the happiest colleagues and friends, and the highest quality research.

As we are growing rapidly, this is an ever present goal: hiring the best people while building diversity in thought, experience and background within our team. While the biotechnology space can feel limited in BIPOC, non-binary and even female representation, we endeavor to make hiring decisions that will continue to grow and support our team in the direction of cultural diversity and sustainability.

 

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