Software Engineer III - Driver Developer (Autonomous Lab)
Ginkgo Bioworks
$112,200 - $159,600 / year
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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.
Job Description 1: Software Engineer III - Driver Developer (Autonomous Lab)
Team: Automation Systems Team
Location: Boston, MA
Hiring Manager: Yangdy Chen and Bradley Spillert
About the Role
We 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.
The 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.
To learn more about automation engineering at Ginkgo, take a look at our website.
Responsibilities
This job requires occasional travel to Ginkgo's office in Boston, MA and customer sites as needed.
Driver Development & Implementation (70%)
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Design, 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).
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Deeply understand and implement various low-level hardware communication protocols, including RS-232, USB, and TCP/IP.
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Develop drivers with a focus on reliability.
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Contribute to the design of the device abstraction layer to create intuitive and robust interfaces for high-level application developers.
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Use and enable agentic software.
Integration & Validation (20%)
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Extensive testing with the rest of the Catalyst stack
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Collaborate closely with scientists and quality assurance teams to perform joint functional testing and validate driver performance against scientific requirements.
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Develop and maintain sophisticated automated unit and integration tests.
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Design and build hardware simulation environments to enable comprehensive driver testing and rapid iteration without relying on physical instrument access.
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Ensure the drivers include comprehensive error handling, logging, and fault-tolerance mechanisms to guarantee graceful recovery from communication timeouts and hardware failures.
Field Support & Diagnostics (10%)
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Act as a Tier 2 technical resource, providing rapid diagnosis and resolution to software and communication errors occurring at critical customer laboratory sites.
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Utilize remote diagnostic tools, system logs, and protocol analyzers to troubleshoot complex field issues quickly and effectively.
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Develop and document workarounds and permanent solutions to maintain high customer uptime.
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Proactively observing usage of our drivers and proposing improvements to the user experience/reliability
Minimum Requirements
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Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
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2–4 years of professional software development experience, with a focus on hardware integration, embedded systems, or driver development.
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Extensive experience with Python.
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Strong communication and collaboration skills.
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Familiarity with laboratory automation, robotics, or scientific instrumentation is highly beneficial.
Preferred Capabilities and Experience
We do not expect that any one candidate will have all of the following capabilities - each is independently a preferred or “nice-to-have” capability.
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Experience in a fast-moving, deep-tech company
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Experience or understanding of laboratory automation and lab automation user personas
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Strong understanding of Operating System fundamentals (threading, synchronization, memory management) and real-time constraints.
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Excellent communication, patience, and the ability to translate complex technical issues for non-software stakeholders (scientists, customers).
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Proficient with Git and experience working within agile methodologies and CI/CD pipelines.
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Advanced skills in debugging low-level code, including use of protocol sniffers, logic analyzers, and remote debugging tools.
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Experience with Windows, C#, COM.
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Experience with OPC-UA, SiLA2.
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Experience or background in a life science or chemistry laboratory
The 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.
Ginkgo 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.
Benefits
- health insurance
- vision insurance
- 401(k)
- paid time off
About this role
At Ginkgo Bioworks, you'd be developing software drivers that power the robotic systems in their autonomous biology labs—the physical infrastructure behind their mission to engineer living organisms. This role sits at the intersection of software engineering and hardware integration, where your code directly controls lab automation equipment like robotic arms and liquid handlers. You'd spend most of your time designing and building reliable drivers in Python and C#/.NET, working with low-level communication protocols (RS-232, USB, TCP/IP) and collaborating with scientists to ensure the software meets rigorous scientific standards.
The work balances depth with breadth. Beyond driver development, you'd own integration testing across their Catalyst software stack, build hardware simulation environments to accelerate testing cycles, and serve as a technical troubleshooter for field issues at customer sites. This means you need solid fundamentals in real-time systems and hardware communication, but also the communication skills to translate complex technical problems for non-software stakeholders like scientists and customers.
You're a strong fit if you have 2–4 years of professional experience in hardware integration, embedded systems, or driver development, with deep Python expertise and a background in laboratory automation or robotics. Lab science experience is a bonus. Note that Ginkgo has implemented a five-days-per-week return-to-office policy for employees within 50 miles of their Boston office, effective October 2025, though this will be discussed during interviews.
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Pay for this role
$112,200 to $159,600 per year
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