Senior Staff Software Engineer, R&D

Werfenlife SA.; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 185,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) with employer match

Paid vacation and sick leave

Job summary

Werfen is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to lead the architecture, design, and delivery of complex software for medical and connected device products, spanning embedded, application, and system interfaces. The role blends hands-on coding with mentoring and cross‑functional collaboration to meet regulatory and quality constraints.

The annual base salary range is $185,000 to $210,000, with bonus eligibility.

Qualifications

• BS/BA in CS/CE/EE; advanced degree is a plus.
• Minimum 12 years of professional software development experience.
• Experience with medical devices or regulated safety-critical systems preferred.
• Proficiency in C and C++ with embedded Linux/RTOS experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture, design, and implementation of software subsystems.
• Mentor engineers and guide architecture reviews.
• Ensure regulatory, quality, and safety requirements are met.

Skills

C/C++ proficiency

Embedded Linux

RTOS experience

Software architecture

Mentoring

Education

BS/BA in CS/CE/EE

Advanced degree encouraged

Tools

Git

Bitbucket

Jenkins

JIRA

CI/CD

Qt

Job description

Country

United States

Shift

1st

About the Position

Introduction

Werfen

Werfen is a growing, family-owned, innovative company founded in 1966 in Barcelona, Spain. We are a worldwide leader in specialized diagnostics in the areas of Hemostasis, Acute Care Diagnostics, Transfusion, Autoimmunity, and Transplant. Through our Original Equipment Manufacturing (OEM) business line, we research, develop, and manufacture customized assays and biomaterials. We operate directly in 30 countries, and in more than 100 territories through distributors. Our Headquarters and Technology Centers are located in the US and Europe, and our workforce is more than 7,000 strong.

Our success comes from a specific focus in these rapidly evolving diagnostic areas, our commitment to customers, and our dedication to innovation and quality. We’re passionate about providing healthcare professionals the most valuable and complete solutions to improve hospital efficiency and enhance patient care.

Overview

Job Summary

The Senior Staff Software Engineer is a senior technical leader and individual contributor responsible for the architecture, design, implementation, and delivery of complex software for medical and connected device products. The engineer operates across real-time embedded systems, device connectivity and management, application software, and system interfaces; translates ambiguous product and system needs into robust technical solutions; and influences decisions across functions and projects. The Senior Staff Software Engineer remains technically hands-on while mentoring engineers, raising engineering standards, and helping teams make sound decisions under technical, regulatory, quality, and schedule constraints.

The annual base salary range for this role is currently $185,000 to $210,000. This is a bonus-eligible position. Individual employee compensation will ultimately depend on factors including education, relevant experience, skillset, knowledge, and particular business needs.

This role is eligible for medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401k plan retirement benefits with an employer match, as well as paid vacation and sick leave.

Responsibilities

Key Accountabilities

• Lead the architecture, design, and implementation of complex software subsystems and reusable platform capabilities across embedded, application, and connected-device domains.
• Own key technical decisions and ensure designs are coherent at the product and system level.
• Work hands‑on in the design, implementation, and review of critical software, with particular depth in C/C++, embedded Linux and/or RTOS environments, real-time behavior, concurrency, memory/resource constraints, robustness, and maintainability.
• Define and evolve software approaches for secure device connectivity, communications, device identity and configuration, diagnostics and logging, software update and serviceability, and device/fleet management capabilities as applicable to the product.
• Manage software lifecycle deliverables and traceability from system and software requirements through architecture, detailed design, implementation, risk controls, verification/validation, release, and post‑release change.
• Apply company quality processes and design controls while partnering with Quality, Systems Engineering, and System Verification to address software risk, reliability, cybersecurity, objective evidence, and applicable FDA, IVDR, and international regulatory expectations.
• Lead technical problem solving across Software, Systems, Electrical/Hardware, Quality, Verification, Product, Service, and other functions.
• Resolve interface and architectural issues while balancing product needs, technical constraints, regulatory obligations, and delivery commitments.

Identify emerging product needs, architectural weaknesses, and technical debt; evaluate or prototype alternatives; and introduce practical innovations that improve capability, reuse, extensibility, reliability, serviceability, security, or engineering effectiveness.

Provide technical estimates, identify dependencies and risks, shape implementation strategies, and help teams make timely tradeoffs when requirements are incomplete or changing.

Mentor and coach engineers, strengthen architecture, design, andcode reviews, contribute to technical hiring, and help maintain a collaborative and accountable engineering culture.

Networking/Key relationships

Software Engineering

Electrical / Hardware Engineering

Quality Engineering

Product Management / Product Development

Regulatory, Service, Operations, and other cross‑functional stakeholders as required

Qualifications

Minimum Knowledge & Experience for the position:

• BS/BA degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related technical field required; advanced degree is a plus.
• Minimum twelve (12) years of professional software development experience with complex embedded, connected, or software‑intensive products
• Experience working within formal product‑development and design‑control processes for medical devices or comparable regulated/safety‑critical systems Direct medical‑device or in‑vitro diagnostic software experience is preferred.
• Proficiency in C and C++ with practical experience in embedded Linux and/or RTOS‑based system Demonstrated.
• Experience designing or delivering network‑connected devices and related capabilities such as secure communications, network interfaces, diagnostics, configuration, software update, serviceability, and device management concepts.

Skills & Capabilities:

• Demonstrated technical leadership skills, including mentoring engineers, driving alignment, and influencing architectural decisions.
• Solid understanding of design methods (e.g., OOD, UML) and software architecture principles, including modular design, abstraction, interface‑based design, and reusable software frameworks.
• Understanding of software architectural challenges when designing embedded systems and connected products.
• Ability to estimate work durations based on high‑level requirements and system constraints.
• Advanced understanding of real‑time software concepts on embedded Linux or RTOS platforms, including deterministic behavior, multi‑threaded applications, synchronization, fault handling, memory management, and interprocess communication.
• Ability to develop clear, testable software requirements from product and system‑level requirements, including support for traceability, risk analysis, and regulated development processes.
• Highly skilled in ANSI C and C++.
• Scripting expertise with Python or similar language.
• Networking experience, including TCP/IP, NAT, Layer 2 Switching, Firewalls, DHCP, device communications, security, diagnostics, and remote device management concepts.
• Experience with software development tools and practices, including Git, Bitbucket, Jenkins, JIRA, code reviews, CI/CD, defect tracking, and configuration management.
• Experience with Qt or similar application/UI frameworks is a plus.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to communicate technical concepts, risks, and recommendations to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.

Approximately 10% of the time.

Werfen is an Equal Opportunity employer and is committed to a diverse workplace. Werfen strictly prohibits unlawful discrimination, harassment or retaliation based upon an individual’s race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin/ancestry, age, mental/physical disability, medical condition, marital status, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic as defined by applicable state or federal law. If you have a disability and need an accommodation in relation to the online application process, please contact [e-mail] for assistance.

We operate directly in over 30 countries, and in more than 100 territories through distributors. Annual revenue is approximately $2 billion and more than 7,000 employees around the world comprise our Werfen team.