{"id":1015267,"url":"https://alion.io/job/ginkgo-bioworks-software-engineer-iii-driver-developer-autonomous-lab","title":"Software Engineer III - Driver Developer (Autonomous Lab)","company":{"id":58589,"name":"Ginkgo Bioworks","domain":"ginkgo.bio","url":"https://alion.io/company/ginkgo-bioworks","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"C","score":67,"open_postings":20,"ghost_share":0.55,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-11-04T06:34:25Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"middle","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Boston, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":112200,"max":159600,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":159600},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":2,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":".NET","optional":false},{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"C#","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"TCP/IP","optional":false},{"name":"Agile","optional":true},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":true},{"name":"Git","optional":true},{"name":"OPC UA","optional":true},{"name":"Windows","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-17T20:45:09Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-17","last_verified_at":"2026-11-04T09:30:55Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":47,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":47},"description":"Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe’s growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our bioengineers make use of an in-house automated foundry for designing and building new organisms. \nJob Description 1: Software Engineer III - Driver Developer (Autonomous Lab)\nTeam: Automation Systems Team\nLocation: Boston, MA\nHiring Manager: Yangdy Chen and Bradley Spillert\nAbout the Role\nWe are seeking a highly motivated and skilled Software Engineer III to join our core engineering team working on Catalyst, our software stack that runs our robotic lab systems. In this role, you will be responsible for the design, development, integration testing, and field support of software drivers for our cutting-edge autonomous labs.\nThe ideal candidate possesses a solid background in programming reliable physical or real-time systems. You excel at cross-functional collaboration, ensuring our drivers meet the exacting standards of the scientific community while providing rapid response to customer issues.\nTo learn more about automation engineering at Ginkgo, take a look at our website.\nResponsibilities\nThis job requires occasional travel to Ginkgo's office in Boston, MA and customer sites as needed.\nDriver Development & Implementation (70%)\nDesign, implement, and maintain robust, high-performance software drivers using Python and/or C#/.NET for a diverse range of lab automation hardware (e.g., robotic arms, liquid handlers, plate readers).\n\nDeeply understand and implement various low-level hardware communication protocols, including RS-232, USB, and TCP/IP.\n\nDevelop drivers with a focus on reliability.\n\nContribute to the design of the device abstraction layer to create intuitive and robust interfaces for high-level application developers.\n\nUse and enable agentic software.\n\nIntegration & Validation (20%)\nExtensive testing with the rest of the Catalyst stack\n\nCollaborate closely with scientists and quality assurance teams to perform joint functional testing and validate driver performance against scientific requirements.\n\nDevelop and maintain sophisticated automated unit and integration tests.\n\nDesign and build hardware simulation environments to enable comprehensive driver testing and rapid iteration without relying on physical instrument access.\n\nEnsure the drivers include comprehensive error handling, logging, and fault-tolerance mechanisms to guarantee graceful recovery from communication timeouts and hardware failures.\n\nField Support & Diagnostics (10%)\nAct as a Tier 2 technical resource, providing rapid diagnosis and resolution to software and communication errors occurring at critical customer laboratory sites.\n\nUtilize remote diagnostic tools, system logs, and protocol analyzers to troubleshoot complex field issues quickly and effectively.\n\nDevelop and document workarounds and permanent solutions to maintain high customer uptime.\n\nProactively observing usage of our drivers and proposing improvements to the user experience/reliability\n\nMinimum Requirements\nBachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.\n\n2-4 years of professional software development experience, with a focus on hardware integration, embedded systems, or driver development. \n\nExtensive experience with Python.\n\nStrong communication and collaboration skills. \n\nFamiliarity with laboratory automation, robotics, or scientific instrumentation is highly beneficial.\n\nPreferred Capabilities and Experience\nWe do not expect that any one candidate will have all of the following capabilities - each is independently a preferred or “nice-to-have” capability.\nExperience in a fast-moving, deep-tech company\n\nExperience or understanding of laboratory automation and lab automation user personas\n\nStrong understanding of Operating System fundamentals (threading, synchronization, memory management) and real-time constraints.\n\nExcellent communication, patience, and the ability to translate complex technical issues for non-software stakeholders (scientists, customers).\n\nProficient with Git and experience working within agile methodologies and CI/CD pipelines.\n\nAdvanced skills in debugging low-level code, including use of protocol sniffers, logic analyzers, and remote debugging tools.\n\nExperience with Windows, C#, COM.\n\nExperience with OPC-UA, SiLA2.\n\nExperience or background in a life science or chemistry laboratory\n\nThe base salary range for this role is $112,200-$159,600. Actual pay within this range will depend on a candidate's skills, expertise, and experience. We also offer company stock awards, a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental & vision coverage, health spending accounts, voluntary benefits, leave of absence policies, 401(k) program with employer contribution, 8 paid holidays in addition to a full-week winter shutdown and unlimited Paid Time Off policy.\nGinkgo has implemented a return to office policy effective October 1, 2025 with required in-office days 5x per week. Some teams may require to be onsite 4-5 days per week and this will be discussed as part of the interview process. This policy applies to all employees who live within 50 miles of Ginkgo’s offices in Boston, MA and Emeryville, CA. \nIt is the policy of Ginkgo Bioworks to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees, employment applicants, and EOE disability/vet. \nPrivacy Notice\nI understand that I am applying for employment with Ginkgo Bioworks and am being asked to provide information in connection with my application. I further understand that Ginkgo gathers this information through a third-party service provider and that Ginkgo may also use other service providers to assist in the application process. Ginkgo may share my information with such third-party service providers in connection with my application and for the start of employment. Ginkgo will treat my information in accordance with Ginkgo's Privacy Policy. By submitting this job application, I am acknowledging that I have reviewed and agree to Ginkgo's Privacy Policy as well as the privacy policies of the third-party service providers used by Ginkgo's associated with the application process.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6313,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":2,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Biotechnology","Science & Engineering","Biomedical Engineering","CRO & CDMO Services"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-17T22:49:57Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 6","filings_12m":6,"filings_prev_12m":14,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":117500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-29T16:27:21+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":19,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.415,"p_room":0.45,"age_days":47,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:1","stale_co","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-11-04T06:34:25Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":159600,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/ginkgo-bioworks-software-engineer-iii-driver-developer-autonomous-lab","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/ginkgo-bioworks-software-engineer-iii-driver-developer-autonomous-lab.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-04T09:42:35Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":15069,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-05T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":58589},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=58589"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fginkgo-bioworks-software-engineer-iii-driver-developer-autonomous-lab"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fginkgo-bioworks-software-engineer-iii-driver-developer-autonomous-lab"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fginkgo-bioworks-software-engineer-iii-driver-developer-autonomous-lab"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/ginkgo-bioworks-software-engineer-iii-driver-developer-autonomous-lab\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fginkgo-bioworks-software-engineer-iii-driver-developer-autonomous-lab"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":1015267}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"ginkgo.bio","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":1015267},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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