Senior Software Engineer, Platform SDK / Instrument Control
Merge Labs3 months ago
Base Salary
$185k - $260k/yr
Responsibilities
- Wrap heterogeneous instruments such as ultrasound-on-chip devices, cameras, stages, temperature-control systems, and delay generators behind reusable, tested device abstractions.
- Design and build a shared orchestration layer for trigger management, checkpoint coordination, and safe experiment execution.
- Implement safety and reproducibility features including parameter bounds, interlocks, dry-run, and simulation capabilities.
- Integrate streaming and backpressure management with the data platform for large-scale acquisition.
- Enable and onboard platform engineers building scientist-facing protocols and advise on platform-related hardware integrations.
- Mentor scientists and engineers on software best practices and the software development life cycle.
Requirements
- Experience with deep systems engineering, including real-time device control, concurrency, memory, and performance.
- Experience building hardware or instrument integrations for a team rather than only for personal use.
- Experience shipping software from zero to one in a startup or new-team environment.
- Strong API and SDK design skills, including clean abstractions, good defaults, asynchronous workflows, and large-data handling.
- Empathy for non-technical users and ability to design systems that support biologists, chemists, and other scientists.
- Experience with scientific instrumentation, lab automation, 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.