Software Engineer
US$112,000 – US$159,500 / yr base salary
Posted 17 Sep 2026
Advertised as “Software Engineer III - Driver Developer (Autonomous Lab)”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Level
- III
- Expected experience
- 2–4 yrs
- Management level
- Individual contributor
- Employment
- On-Site
| Base salary | US$112,000 – US$159,500 / yr |
|---|
Field of studyComputer Science, Electrical Engineering (or related)
Study levelBachelor's or higher
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.