Senior Software Engineer, Platform SDK / Instrument Control
Merge Labs2 months ago
Base Salary
$225k - $260k/yr
Responsibilities
- Wrap heterogeneous instruments, including ultrasound-on-chip devices, cameras, stages, temperature control, and delay generators, as reusable and well-tested components.
- Design and build a shared orchestration layer for trigger management, checkpoint coordination, and safe experiment execution.
- Implement safety-by-default features such as parameter bounds, interlocks, dry-run, and simulation capabilities.
- Integrate streaming and backpressure management with the data platform for large-scale acquisition.
- Onboard and enable platform engineers building scientist-facing protocols and advise on integration needs for new platform hardware.
- Mentor scientists and engineers on software best practices and the software development life cycle.
Requirements
- Experience building hardware or instrument integrations for a team.
- Deep systems engineering experience involving real-time device control, concurrency, memory, and performance.
- Experience shipping software from zero to one, whether at a startup or in a new team.
- Strong API and SDK design skills, including clean abstractions, good defaults, asynchronous workflows, and large-data handling.
- Empathy for biologists, chemists, and other non-programmers who build workflows on the measurement platform.
- Experience with scientific instrumentation such as ultrasound or microscopy, lab automation such as liquid handling or robotics, or high-throughput data acquisition is a bonus.
About Merge Labs
Merge Labs is a privately held research lab developing high-bandwidth brain-computer interfaces that integrate with advanced AI to augment human capability. It builds experimental platforms and automated pipelines across molecular engineering, synthetic biology, neuroscience, advanced microscopy, sequencing, and mammalian cell culture to accelerate BCI R&D. Founded in 2025, the company focuses on safe, accessible neurotechnology rather than commercial products today.