Senior Software Engineer (Factory Automation)

About us

Vow is a cultured meat company on a mission to feed billions and create food that’s good for your tastebuds, your health and your planet.

We’re bringing together cutting edge innovations in science, engineering, culinary and design to create new meats that meat lovers can choose selfishly because it’s nutritious and delicious, and we’re doing so in a sustainable way.

The role:

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will be responsible for creating software systems that orchestrate the production of cultured meat at our facility in Alexandria. You will iterate on our in-house process control framework and drive the development of our multi-device automation software infrastructure. You will be responsible for improving all aspects of our systems allowing our factory to run 24/7 with minimal operator input or downtime. You will work on full stack systems, from device drivers to user interfaces and importantly take a lead in developing foundational architecture, but you should not be afraid to get your hands dirty.

You will work shoulder to shoulder with operators, other engineers and scientists to turn Vows’ mission into a reality. Outstanding candidates think from first principles, embrace ambiguity, and relish building elegant solutions that move real atoms, not just pixels.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree (or higher) in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering or a related discipline with 3 + years of professional software development OR 5+ years of professional experience in software development in lieu of degree
• 1+ years of experience working on software that interacts with the physical world (manufacturing, robotics, industrial IoT, medical devices, warehouse automation, logistics,)

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• Python + TypeScript/React: Able to deliver clean, idiomatic code across back-end services and user-facing UIs.
• Distributed, time-sensitive systems design: Experience building and maintaining architectures that coordinate many independent services/devices and stay reliable under real-time constraints. 
• Hybrid deployment & operations: deploying and maintaining Linux containerised applications across both cloud (AWS/GCP/Azure) and on-prem environments using Infrastructure-as-Code and automated CI/CD pipelines 
• Real-time data familiarity: Comfortable streaming, storing, and visualising live process data and keeping it consistent across services. 
• Solid database foundations: Confident with relational/non-relational schemas (e.g. and understands when to introduce messaging, caching, or state machines. 
• Design for reliability: Routine use of automated tests, observability hooks, and graceful-failure patterns. 
• Product mindset: Translates operator or scientist workflows into intuitive software and iterates rapidly on feedback.
• Cross-functional leadership: Clear communicator who can own projects end-to-end and mentor teammates across engineering domains.

Soft skills that will make someone successful:

• High ownership and resilience in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment.
• First-principles problem solver who thrives where few precedents exist.
• Genuine passion for highly automated and AI-enabled manufacturing.
• User-centric focus - actively seeks feedback and weighs end-user impact in every decision.
• Pragmatic decision-making that balances perfection with speed and ROI.

Bonus if you have:

• Automated-manufacturing track record: You shipped software that runs automated production lines making something (food, pharma, med-tech, robotics, etc) and handled validation, GMP, or other regulated-quality constraints.
• Complex device orchestration: You have hands-on experience coordinating dozens-to-hundreds of sensors, pumps, robots, PLCs or edge computers through rest, message buses, pub/sub, or state-machine engines.
• Industrial protocols & control theory: Some exposure to EtherNet/IP, OPC UA, Modbus, IO-Link, or writing/­­tuning PIDs and other real-time control loops.
• Green-field architecture wins: You scoped and delivered a brand-new backend or data platform, chose the primitives, and iterated it into production reliability.
• Real-time data pipelines & historian design – built low-latency streams (Kafka/Redpanda, Pulsar, MQTT) that ingest factory telemetry, land it in time-series stores (InfluxDB, Timescale, VictoriaMetrics) and power live dashboards, alerting, or closed-loop control logic
• Open-source & hardware hacks – visible contributions to OSS control/robotics projects or personal builds (CNC, drone, hydroponics) demonstrating curiosity beyond the day job.

(If you tick even a couple of these, we’d love to hear how you did it.)

You will:

• Own the factory-OS stack – design, build, and iterate on our real-time, Linux-based control framework that orchestrates bioreactors, centrifuges, CIP stations, and media mixers 24/7
• Architect hybrid systems – decide what runs at the edge vs. in the cloud; deliver low-latency, high-reliability services that can scale to larger future plants
• Ship hardware-in-the-loop software – develop and test device drivers, communication layers (OPC UA, Modbus, etc), and state-machine engines that coordinate dozens of devices in milliseconds.
• Build scheduling & planning engines – create algorithms and UIs that autonomously plan complex biological workflows and optimise resource usage.
• Extend our data model & pipelines – stream, store, and aggregate real-time process data; surface insights in dashboards, alerts, and a “bioprocess copilot” agent.
• Integrate wisely – plug in third-party MES/ERP or ML services where they add value, and craft clean APIs for internal consumers.
• Talk to users daily – shadow operators and scientists, map pain-points, and turn findings into faster, safer, more intuitive tooling.
• Prototype fast, validate rigorously – iterate with minimal red tape while upholding safety, uptime, and quality standards.
• Mentor and lead – guide junior engineers, drive key architectural decisions, and set best practices for testing, observability, and reliability.
• Grow with the mission – carve a path toward technical leadership, system architecture, or engineering management as Vow scales.

Location & Work Style

• Factory-first: Hardware lives in Alexandria, so most days you’ll be on site - observing, testing, and talking with operators.
• High-trust flexibility: Need heads-down time at home or to shift hours? Use your judgment, coordinate with the team, and go for it.
• In-person culture: We default to face-to-face because fast iteration across software, hardware, and biology works best that way. Remote is the exception, not the norm.

What success looks like:

Within 3 months, you will:

Ramp fast

• Complete structured onboarding sessions on our process-control framework, data model, and factory hardware map.
• Shadow operators for at least two full shifts to see pain-points first-hand.

Ship value early:

• Land your first production PR within 4 weeks - e.g. a UI improvement, small feature or new automation capability

Earn trust:

• Take your first on-call shift (with backup) and close one incident or post-mortem.
• Present an “fresh perspective” doc outlining quick wins and longer-term technical bets.

Within 6 months, you will:

Lead a scoped project

• Design → implement → validate a mid-size feature (e.g. new multi-device coordination module, device-to-cloud data pipeline, or scheduling sub-system) that reduces manual interventions or cycle time

Harden the platform:

• Drive at least one architectural improvement - latency, reliability, or developer-ergonomics - documenting metrics before/after.

Own a slice of the stack:

• Become DRI for a defined area (e.g. device comms layer, metrics & streaming, or operator UI) and maintain its backlog, SLAs, and tech roadmap.

Within 12 months, you will:

• Be the go-to expert for one or more core services that keep the factory running - trusted to make high-impact design calls without heavy oversight.
• Scale for the next plant:
• Deliver a cornerstone capability (autonomous scheduling, AI-based fault recovery, or cross-line coordination) that is production-ready for a 10× larger facility
• Raise the engineering bar:
• Mentor newer hires, codify best practices (testing, observability, safety), and run at least one cross-team design review or post-mortem deep-dive
• Drive innovation:
• Propose and prototype a forward-looking improvement (e.g. closed-loop optimisation, advanced simulation, or third-party integration) that makes leadership rethink what’s possible.

Who we are and why join:

• We are building a diverse, mission-led dream team of “Vowzers.” Our mission is to make food products for everyone. To do that well we need a workforce that’s representative of the people we serve. We celebrate multiple approaches and points of view - so we’re building a culture to match. Be yourself and come as you are.
• Work on cutting-edge technology. We’re bringing together cutting-edge innovations in science, engineering, and food, to recreate the world’s most tantalising and unique culinary experiences. All without compromising on ethics or our planet along the way. Since our inception in 2019, we have held the title of being the first startup to cultivate meat from the cells of an undomesticated animal, been called The Spaceship of the cultured meat industry by Forbes and launched our first product under the brand Forged in some of the hottest restaurants in Singapore. 
• Work with and learn from the best. Our team includes some of the world’s top scientists, innovators, operators, and creatives with decades of industry experience. Despite our experiences though, we all strive to build, break, learn, and repeat. We see the impossible as temporary and strive to learn and support our company and fellow Vowzers' growth as much as possible.
• We’re fully funded and ready to go. We are a growing Aussie biotech start-up backed by Blackbird Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Grok Ventures, Tenacious Ventures, P7 Ventures, Toyota Ventures, and PeakBridge VC.

Vow perks and benefits:

• Everyone is an owner. In addition to competitive base salaries, each and every ‘Vowzer’ owns equity in the company so we can all benefit from our hard work and future success.
• Generous paid parental leave. We offer 8 weeks of paid caregiver leave and an additional 8 weeks paid leave for the birth giver.
• Generous relocation budget & support. Support for interstate or overseas team members and their families.
• Unlimited personal leave. At Vow we recognise that sometimes sh*t happens. We don’t want you to stress about work when you need to deal with an emergency or are struggling with something truly difficult. We offer unlimited personal leave to empower you to truly bring your best self to work every single day.
• Heaps of tasty samples from our culinary centre. Our fantastic "food inventors" on the Vow team are always cooking up new product prototypes, and all Vowzers are given the opportunity to taste, give feedback, and learn from their culinary prowess.
• An awesome converted warehouse “campus” in Alexandria. Complete with a glass-walled lab, 2 factories, shower and towel service, bike rack, free snacks, a culinary centre and plenty of collaboration and chill zones. 
• Human and dog friendly office! An inclusive community and culture, in a welcoming office, complete with friendly “Vowzer” dogs!
• A variety of social clubs. We encourage all our Vowzers to build the culture with us and share what you love by creating social clubs across the business. From book clubs to hiking groups, we’re always looking for ways to learn and engage with our team.