Hardware Engineer, Scientific Instrumentation

Cultivarium; Watertown (MA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

Healthcare benefits

401(k) with employer match

Job summary

Cultivarium in Watertown, MA is seeking a senior hardware engineer to design and own custom instruments for imaging, culturing, and engineering organisms—from prototype to daily-use tools. You will partner with wet-lab scientists and external contractors, bridging mechanical, electrical, and firmware disciplines to deliver robust, maintainable instruments and the datasets they enable.

Responsibilities include hardware design, testing, debugging, improving manufacturability, and supporting

Qualifications

• 3–7+ years designing and shipping real hardware for instruments or lab equipment.
• Hands-on prototype to production experience.
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration.
• Ability to reason across mechanical, electrical, and firmware domains.
• Authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship.

Responsibilities

• Design and own custom instruments for imaging, culturing, and engineering organisms across the tree of life, spanning mechanical systems, electronics and firmware, and the integration between them.
• Harden prototypes into reliable equipment that runs unattended for long experiments, designing for robustness, manufacturability, and serviceability.
• Build and extend key subsystems: precision motion and gantry systems, high-voltage electroporation electronics, imaging and illumination, and thermal and environmental control.
• Integrate instruments with robotic automation and liquid-handling platforms.
• Scope and manage focused external engineering contractors,.
• Bring high agency and high standards: take ownership, give and receive candid feedback, and push the team to be its best in service of the science.

Skills

Hardware design

Electronics

Firmware fundamentals

Mechanical design

Prototyping

Robotics

Education

Bachelor's in mechanical engineering or electrical engineering

Tools

CAD (SolidWorks)

PCB design

Job description

Who We Are Cultivarium builds scientific tools that turn biological discovery into real-world capability. As a Frontier Research Contractor, we provide technical solutions and hands-on support to partners working on the problems of today. Born a Focused Research Organization, we are drawn to the hardest technological problems in biology and built to tackle them with intensity. We prize builders who efficiently leverage resources to deliver tangible solutions at the frontier, for outsized societal benefit. Our ambition is to study and engineer non-model organisms across the entire tree of life.

What We Are Looking For We're expanding our hardware initiatives and now need more leadership of these activities in-house. Cultivarium builds custom equipment to probe more organisms across the tree of life, including an automated imaging incubator, high-throughput electroporation systems, and robotic platforms for engineering biology, much of it built today with outside firms. You’ll design and own these instruments end to end, from prototype to reliable, daily-use tools. You’ll partner closely with wet-lab scientists and a small set of external contractors, and design hardware that doesn’t yet exist to generate new-to-the-world datasets. A successful candidate brings strong engineering judgment to ambiguous problems, a bias for building and iterating, and the range to reason across the mechanical, electrical, and biology boundary.

Responsibilities

• Design and own custom instruments for imaging, culturing, and engineering organisms across the tree of life, spanning mechanical systems, electronics and firmware, and the integration between them.
• Harden prototypes into reliable equipment that runs unattended for long experiments, designing for robustness, manufacturability, and serviceability.
• Build and extend key subsystems: precision motion and gantry systems, high-voltage electroporation electronics, imaging and illumination, and thermal and environmental control.
• Integrate instruments with robotic automation and liquid-handling platforms.
• Scope and manage focused external engineering contractors,.
• Bring high agency and high standards: take ownership, give and receive candid feedback, and push the team to be its best in service of the science.

Basic Qualifications

• You believe that the most interesting biology will be better observed, measured, and engineered with new technologies rather than using those from the past.
• Authorized to work without sponsorship.
• Bachelor's in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 3–7+ years designing and shipping real hardware: instruments, devices, or lab equipment. We care more about evidence of compelling outputs and high velocity than years on a résumé. Show us what you've built and how fast you built it.
• Depth in at least one of mechanical design, electronics, or firmware, with enough range to reason across all three and across the hardware/software boundary.
• Hands-on experience taking hardware from prototype to working product, including testing, debugging, and iteration.
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills, reasoning from first principles, with meticulous record-keeping.
• A strong communicator who explains technical tradeoffs clearly to engineers and non-engineers, with a creative, detail-oriented, collaborative approach.

Advanced Qualifications

• Experience building scientific instruments or lab equipment (e.g. bioreactors, culturing systems, optical or fluidic systems).
• Experience with lab automation, robotics, or instrument control and integration.
• Proficiency in embedded firmware (C/C++) and/or a modern language for instrument control and data (e.g. Python). Experience with mechanical CAD, PCB design, sensors, or mixed-signal systems.
• Experience working in a research or early-stage environment where requirements evolve quickly.
• Track record of technical contributions through shipped products, open-source software, publications, or equivalent demonstrated expertise.

We Offer

• An opportunity to refine your craft in service of science and society.
• Paid time off, company holidays, and a year-end closure
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) with employer match

We are an Equal Employment Opportunity employer that proudly pursues and hires a diverse workforce. We do not make hiring or employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion or religious belief, ethnic or national origin, nationality, sex, gender, gender-identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable local, state, or federal laws or prohibited by Company policy. We strive for a healthy and safe workplace and strictly prohibit harassment of any kindt