Software Engineer II

Job Description

TITLE: Software Engineer II

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT – BIOINFORMATICS AND SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

We are seeking talented, curious, and self-motivated software engineers to help build the most advanced production-scale synthetic biology platform on the planet. Client X manufactures sustainable plant-derived ingredients using fermentation-based technology to help accelerate the move away from petrochemicals in our food, cosmetics and medicines. Our ingredients are used by more than 250 million consumers in over 2,000 of the worlds’ leading brands.

R&D at Client X is a highly multidisciplinary effort and the Bioinformatics, Automation and Software Engineering (BASE) group is at its core driving us forward. Every aspect of our work, from modifying the DNA of microorganisms in the lab to full scale factory production, is facilitated by software and hardware automation. In addition, we collaborate daily with data scientists and computational biologists to use our wealth of data to solve problems using machine learning and other optimization techniques. Our tools integrate the activities of scientists, engineers, and industrial robots to enable the rapid optimization of genetic designs and laboratory processes to deliver high quality ingredients to our customers.

Among the tools we have developed are a CAD/CAM system for genetic engineering: a compiler toolchain whose target architecture is life itself. This stack physically integrates high level genetic modules into microbial hosts. We also derive novel strains through random mutagenesis and directed evolution. Using our custom control platform, we then subject these experimental organisms to high throughput performance screening in our state-of-the-art robotic labs.

Responsibilities:

Design, develop and maintain web-based application written in Python.

Collaborate with scientists to transform an understanding of their workflow into designs and implementations of appropriate data models and user interfaces.

Effectively communicate with research scientists.

Apply best practices of software development throughout your work, while staying abreast of advances in the practice.

Qualifications:

3+ years of professional programming experience

Strong coding skills in either Python or a similar language. Ideally deep experience in multiple languages. In addition to Python, Amyris has codebases in F#, R and PHP (phasing out, but still have some important legacy code).

Experience with full-stack web application development, including coding skills in JavaScript, CSS and HTML. Relational database design and coding experience. We use PostgreSQL and SQL Server, though we also treat plasmids and chromosomes as datastores.

Experience developing software in a Unix environment. Dev tools are chosen at the developer’s discretion, but most of the software development and all production deployment is on Linux (Ubuntu).

Fluent Linux command-line skills.

Interest and ability to communicate with scientists