Autonomous Lab Software Engineer (AI/Robotics)

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Urbana (IL); On-site; USD 75,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

The Research Software Engineer at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's NSF iBioFoundry leads software development toward autonomous laboratory capabilities, integrating AI, robotics, and distributed computing to plan and execute experiments with minimal human intervention.

You will build scalable software infrastructure, support multi-agent AI workflows, mentor students, and contribute to open-source components while coordinating with researchers and engineers in a high-ownership

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, AI, bioinformatics, computational biology, software engineering, or a related field.
• 2+ years of professional full-stack software development experience in relevant areas such as biology, chemistry, engineering.
• Operation of Cloud infrastructure and managing containers, e.g., Docker, Kubernetes.
• Include a substantive cover letter, updated resume/CV, portfolio examples demonstrating software design, IT operations; and contact information for three references.

Responsibilities

• Implement, operate, and continuously improve a multi-agent AI system that plans biological research and translates high-level objectives into executable workflows.
• Maintain and implement critical components of the software backbone for autonomous laboratory operations with focus on reliability and observability.
• Develop and maintain an open-source scheduler for experiment planning and instrument coordination.
• Design software architecture and operational practices enabling rapid troubleshooting and long-term system evolution.
• Build data pipelines, services, and APIs connecting AI agents, instruments, and databases.
• Coordinate a team of graduate students and postdocs, review code, and mentor team members.

Skills

Full-stack development

Cloud infrastructure

Team mentorship

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS / AI / bioinformatics / computational biology

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

The Research Software Engineer at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's NSF iBioFoundry leads software development toward autonomous laboratory capabilities, integrating AI, robotics, and distributed computing to plan and execute experiments with minimal human intervention.

You will build scalable software infrastructure, support multi-agent AI workflows, mentor students, and contribute to open-source components while coordinating with researchers and engineers in a high-ownership