Senior Instrument-Control Software Architect

Socket.dev; Chanhassen (MN); On-site; USD 130,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Physical Electronics USA (PHI) seeks a Lead Software Engineer - Instrument Control to own system architecture and provide technical direction for software that controls PHI's advanced surface-analysis instruments. This senior individual contributor role combines hands-on software design with system-level leadership across teams.

You will translate customer requirements into reliable instrument behavior, lead multiple releases, and ensure software is well-designed, well-tested, and maintainable

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related discipline.
• 5+ years of professional software-engineering experience, including instrument-control or similar complex systems.
• Ability to define system architecture, lead development across releases, and influence decisions across teams.
• Strong software design, including object-oriented analysis, design patterns, modular architecture, testing and maintainability.
• Experience translating customer requirements into dependable product behavior and long-term support needs.
• Experience with simulation, integration testing, system-level testing, troubleshooting, and validation on physical equipment.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain architecture and technical strategy for instrument-control platform (control, automation, UI, data acquisition, reduction).
• Conceive customer needs into concrete system designs; document assumptions and tradeoffs and drive cross-product alignment.
• Design, develop, test, document, install, and support software for sophisticated instrumentation while remaining hands-on.
• Establish standards for design-first development, OO analysis and design, code reuse, testing, reviews, and release readiness.
• Define testing strategies using simulation, integration testing, cross-testing, and real-system validation.
• Lead design and code reviews, evaluate alternatives, risks, and long-term impact across systems.
• Diagnose complex software/hardware integration and instrument-performance issues through cross-team collaboration.
• Drive collaboration with ULVAC-PHI teams for requirements, testing, and validation sessions.
• Create and maintain system-architecture documents, design specs, test plans, and roadmaps.
• Lead automation, workflows, and UX improvements to reduce manual steps and increase reliability.
• Mentor engineers across experience levels through design guidance and code reviews.
• Lead improvements to processes, testing workflows, tools, infrastructure, and productivity; incorporate lessons from post-mortems.

Skills

Software design

Object-oriented design

System architecture

Leadership

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering

Job description

Physical Electronics USA (PHI) seeks a Lead Software Engineer - Instrument Control to own system architecture and provide technical direction for software that controls PHI's advanced surface-analysis instruments. This senior individual contributor role combines hands-on software design with system-level leadership across teams.

You will translate customer requirements into reliable instrument behavior, lead multiple releases, and ensure software is well-designed, well-tested, and maintainable