Senior Software Engineer, Instrumentation

Exthymic; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

401(k) match

Job summary

Exthymic seeks a senior software engineer to architect and implement instrument software for autonomous cell-therapy manufacturing. You will bridge firmware to host applications, enabling robust data pipelines, testing, and regulatory-compliant documentation.

You will work with hardware and software teams to evolve the platform as science advances, shaping safety-critical, fault-tolerant systems in a regulated environment.

Qualifications

• 7+ years developing software for instruments, medical devices, robotics, autonomous vehicles, or laboratory automation in a regulated software lifecycle.
• Experience with closed-loop control of physical hardware and robotics middleware (ROS 2).
• Design for failure conditions and cross-discipline collaboration at hardware/software interfaces.

Responsibilities

• Shape the instrument software architecture—from firmware to instrument control, data, and the operator interface.
• Develop the instrument control software for autonomous cell-therapy manufacturing: recipe execution, state-machine control, and safety behavior.
• Integrate with hardware by writing host-side software that communicates with microcontrollers, sensors, actuators, and imaging.
• Manage the instrument's data by building pipelines to capture, store, and serve process data with full traceability.
• Enable testing across development: instrumented experiments, simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and application testing.
• Establish robust SDLC and testing practices: CI/CD pipelines, code reviews, release management, and automated testing.
• Develop within regulatory requirements and contribute to documentation, risk analysis, and audit trails.

Skills

C++

Rust

Python

ROS 2

Embedded software

Safety-critical mindset

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics or related field

Tools

CI/CD pipelines

Version control

Job description

Exthymic is an early-stage deep-tech startup on a mission to prevent millions of cancer deaths by making curative cell therapies widely accessible. Our platform enables the manufacturing of patient-specific treatments at the point of care. Led by experienced industry pioneers, we blend hardware, software, and biochemical engineering to disrupt the status quo and democratize life-saving therapies. Join us to solve complex challenges and drive global healthcare innovation.

About You

You are a senior software engineer who has built instrument or device software in a regulated environment, along with the documentation and risk analysis that go with it. You design for failure conditions, and you are effective where the hardware is still being designed and the requirements are still evolving. You work well alongside electrical, mechanical, optical, and bioprocess engineers, bringing up new hardware and turning their process knowledge into software the instrument runs on its own.

Key Responsibilities

• Shape the instrument software architecture - Contribute to the design of the software stack for the instrument, from firmware through instrument control, data, and the operator interface.
• Develop the instrument control software - Build the software that runs an autonomous cell-therapy manufacturing process: recipe execution, state-machine control, and the safety behavior. Design for a process that will keep changing as the science matures
• Integrate with hardware - Write the host-side software that communicates with the instrument's microcontrollers, bringing its sensors, actuators, and imaging into the control system. Work at the bench with the engineers who designed the hardware, and contribute to firmware where it helps
• Manage the instrument's data - Build the pipelines that capture, store, and serve process data so that every run is traceable from raw acquisition to final record
• Enable testing across development - Support engineers and scientists in exercising their subsystems and processes on the instrument: instrumented experiments, simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and application testing as the process comes together
• Establish robust SDLC and testing practices - Design, build, and maintain software test harnesses, automated CI/CD pipelines, code review workflows, and release management processes to ensure high code quality and reliable deployments
• Develop within the regulatory requirements - Work under a regulated software lifecycle and help author the documentation, risk analysis, and audit trails that go with it

Requirements

• Degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related field, or equivalent industry experience
• Typically 7+ years developing software for instruments, medical devices, robotics, autonomous vehicles, or laboratory automation, including time under a regulated software development lifecycle
• Strong modern C++, rust, and/or Python, spanning microcontroller firmware to host applications
• Experience with closed-loop control of physical hardware, heirarchical state-machine and behavior tree execution architectures, digital twin or in silico modeling of physical behaviors, and robotics middleware (e.g., ROS 2)
• A safety-critical engineering mindset: fault handling, safe-state design, and traceability
• Comfort working with engineers in other disciplines at the hardware/software interface

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with regulatory submissions or design history files
• Implementation of 21 CFR Part 11 / GMP data-integrity controls
• Real-time image processing or in-loop ML inference
• Simulation of fluidics instrumentation (e.g. sensors, valves, pumps)
• Microcontroller firmware development, including bringing up new hardware at the bench
• Background in cell therapy, bioprocessing, or life-science instrumentation
• Experience in deploying AI agents across engineering workflows, including designing guardrails for safe agent operation
• Early-stage startup experience

Benefits

Competitive salary and benefits package, including Medical, Dental, Vision, and 401k match.

Salary Range

$150,000 - $200,000, commensurate with experience

Benefits

We offer our employees comprehensive benefits, including medical, vision, and dental coverage, as well as retirement savings plans. Optional benefits include accident and term life offerings.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Exthymic Corporation is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age (40 and over), disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, reproductive health decision-making, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. We comply with all applicable equal employment opportunity laws and will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities throughout the application and employment process.

Agencies

We work directly with candidates and do not accept unsolicited resumes or referrals from recruitment agencies, search firms, or staffing companies. Any resumes submitted by an agency without a signed agreement in place will be considered the property of Exthymic and no fee will be owed. If you are interested in partnering with us on a future search, please contact our HR team directly.