Instrument Product Engineer

Arcadia Science; Emeryville (CA); On-site; USD 185,000 - 225,000; Full time

Job summary

Arcadia Science in Emeryville, California seeks an Instrument Product Engineer for the Foundry division, bridging R&D and commercial deployment. You will own AutoOpenRaman from architecture to a scalable, user-friendly instrument suitable for collaboration labs.

You will supervise mechanical design, coordinate with software and optical engineers, drive safety certification, and manage vendor relationships to deliver 10–50 unit production runs and a robust external deployment model.

Qualifications

• Experience taking an instrument from working prototype to user-ready units.
• Knowledge of optical instrumentation and performance troubleshooting.
• Experience owning BOMs, assembly docs, and DFM through fabrication cycles.
• Ability to work with software engineers on GUI and workflows.
• CAD proficiency to review and direct a mechanical engineer’s work.

Responsibilities

• Own AutoOpenRaman as a product: system architecture, performance requirements, and the definition of done for a shippable instrument.
• Set project directions for engineering work, evaluating trade-offs.
• Close gaps between current performance and product requirements (signal-to-noise, acquisition time, footprint).
• Define hardware–software interfaces with a software engineer for automated control.
• Own BOM and assembly protocol, targeting 10–50 unit production runs.
• Drive laser safety certification, vendor relationships, and fabrication partnerships.
• Define external deployment: installation, training, service, and what breaks when not in the room.

Skills

Instrument development

CAD proficiency

Bill of materials ownership

Cross-functional collaboration

Optical instrumentation knowledge

Mechanical design oversight

Tools

CAD software

Job description

We are Arcadia Science, an evolutionary biology company founded and led by scientists. Our mission is to turn natural innovations into real-world solutions by developing systematic and quantitative approaches to leveraging biology for therapeutics R&D. We share our research as openly as possible to accelerate discovery and make our work broadly useful.

About the Role

The Instrument Product Engineer will be part of the Foundry, Arcadia's division at the interface between R&D and commercial deployment. The goal of this division is to take scientifically validated tools and capabilities from the research team and productionize them for broader use. The Foundry's first focus is Raman spectroscopy. This role reports directly to the CEO and will interact with software, mechanical, and optical engineers.

This is a productization role, not a research role. AutoOpenRaman is a validated, open-source, automated Raman spectrometer we built for biological research, and it produces good data on our bench today. The remaining work is productization, creating a scalable version with a smaller footprint that most scientists can use day-to-day. The next version should be reliable enough to run in a collaborator’s lab without significant oversight and training.

You’ll own that transition end to end. You’ll set the system architecture and performance requirements, direct the mechanical design, work with a software engineer on the control and analysis experience, troubleshoot performance with optical scientists, run the vendor and safety-certification process, and define what external deployment actually looks like. You will be responsible for project managing these activities towards a reasonable deadline.

What You’ll Work On

• Own AutoOpenRaman as a product: system architecture, performance requirements, and the definition of done for a shippable instrument
• Set project directions for engineering work, while evaluating and iterating on trade-offs
• Close the gap between current performance and product requirements, such as signal-to-noise, acquisition time, footprint, measurement reproducibility
• Work with a software engineer to define the hardware–software interface and make sure the instrument behaves predictably under automated control
• Own the system bill of materials and the assembly protocol, with an eye toward 10-50 unit production runs
• Drive Class 1 laser safety certification, vendor relationships, and fabrication partnerships
• Define what external deployment looks like, including installation, training, service, and what breaks when we’re not in the room

What We Look For

You’ll be well-suited for this role if you have:

• A track record of taking an instrument from working prototype to units in other people’s hands
• Basic working fluency with optical instrumentation, enough to hold a technical conversation with an optical scientist, know when a performance problem is optical in origin, and translate their answer into a design decision.
• Experience owning a bill of materials, assembly documentation, and design for manufacturability through real fabrication cycles
• Experience partnering with software engineers to co-develop instrument control GUIs and user workflows that are intuitive and reliable for scientific users
• CAD proficiency sufficient to review and direct a mechanical engineer’s work
• Ability to communicate with biologists and understand what actually matters for a life science instrument: ergonomics, sample loading, serviceability, and ease of use are part of the design problem

Nice to have:

• Hands-on experience designing products or instruments for life science researchers
• Direct experience with optics, either instrument development or hands-on use
• Familiarity with laser safety standards and experience designing enclosed laser systems
• Experience managing or collaborating with engineers

Compensation

Successful applicants can expect to be compensated between $185,000-$225,000 with benefits and a competitive equity offering, depending on experience level. The position will require the individual to be on-site at our Emeryville, California headquarters.

Arcadia is an equal opportunity workplace; we welcome people from all backgrounds and communities. We provide competitive compensation and practical benefits to keep you happy and healthy so that you can do your best work.