Senior Software Engineer (Autonomous Lab)

Join Ginkgo Bioworks, a leader in biotechnology, as a Senior Software Engineer in the Autonomous Lab software organization. You will work on Catalyst, the software platform that powers Ginkgo's Autonomous Lab product. You will have the opportunity to work on various teams, including Agent Interfaces, Solutions Engineering, Orchestrator, Data Management, and Ops & Infra Team. This position requires strong communication and collaboration skills, proficiency in Python, and experience in software development.

• Independently scope, design, and deliver large or complex software features end-to-end with minimal guidance.
• Own components and subsystems across the full lifecycle: design, implementation, testing, deployment, and ongoing support.
• Identify and drive architectural improvements that improve reliability, maintainability, or developer productivity.
• Candidates who apply to this posting will be considered for all open Senior Software Engineer positions across the Automation Software organization
• Strong communication and collaboration skills; ability to work effectively across engineering, science, and customer-facing stakeholders
• 5 years of experience in a software development role, with demonstrated ownership of complex systems or features
• Strong proficiency in Python; additional language experience relevant to your team (C#/.NET for drivers, TypeScript/React for agent interfaces or solutions engineering, etc.) is noted in the team descriptions above
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
• Experience designing and operating production software — APIs, services, or systems — with real users and real uptime expectations
• Experience building agentic systems, LLM-backed applications, or tool-use frameworks (LangChain, MCP, function calling, etc.)
• Familiarity with laboratory automation, robotics, or scientific instrumentation
• Experience with scheduling, optimization, or operations research (constraint programming, MILP, heuristics)
• Experience with hardware communication protocols (RS-232, USB, TCP/IP, OPC-UA, SiLA2) or driver development
• Experience with specialized device software libraries such as HL8, Terapagos, and Stratum v2
• Strong relational database skills (PostgreSQL) and experience with schema design and query performance
• Experience with Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure (GCP, AWS, Azure), or CI/CD and release engineering
• Experience with event-streaming systems (Kafka, Temporal) or data warehousing (ClickHouse, BigQuery, Snowflake)
• Experience deploying and supporting software in customer environments, including on-prem
• Proficiency with Git and experience working within agile methodologies and CI/CD pipeline