Senior Software Engineer - Robotics

Description

The company builds an automated robotic system that makes cell therapies at scale, and this role centres on the software behind it. You'll work on everything from interfaces to mobile robots and low-level factory control through to factory operation, automation and orchestration.

You'll sit in the robotics team and work closely with software and systems engineers to turn requirements into working features. You'll help shape technical design, solve delivery problems and mentor other engineers.

The work is hands-on. You'll often deploy code onto physical equipment, run integration tests with robots and connected bioprocess equipment, and track down faults at the boundary between software and hardware. Robotics experience is welcome but not required. The company cares most about software skills, curiosity and a willingness to learn.

Responsibilities

• Own the design, architecture, implementation and debugging of maintainable components, services and interfaces across the robotics platform. Make key architecture decisions so solutions stay scalable, robust and aligned with long-term platform goals.
• Connect software to robots, devices and equipment.
• Write and run tests on hardware to check behaviour, find the cause of failures and confirm fixes under realistic conditions.
• Keep quality high through test-driven development, automated testing, continuous integration and code review.
• Coach colleagues, share what you know and help junior engineers produce consistent, high-quality code.
• Work across disciplines to resolve integration issues and ship features at a steady pace.
• Keep technical documentation and test records current to support development, verification and regulatory needs.

Requirements

• Substantial experience building complex software, with solid skills in design, implementation, testing and debugging across the full lifecycle.
• Advanced Python skills.
• Strong grasp of object-oriented programming and software design patterns, plus experience building backend services or applications and connecting systems through APIs or messaging.
• Experience with distributed systems built on message-oriented or event-based designs.
• Sound engineering habits: version control, automated testing and continuous integration.
• Ability to mentor engineers, explain technical ideas clearly and work with people from other disciplines.
• Genuine interest in robotics and a willingness to work on hardware, learning to test and troubleshoot integrated systems.
• Desirable: these are useful extras rather than requirements. Robotics experience can come from personal projects, study, research or paid work.
• Desirable: robotics or automation experience, such as ROS or ROS 2, mobile robots, robotic arms, motion control or machine vision.
• Desirable: integrating software with hardware, low-level peripherals or industrial communication protocols such as MQTT.
• Desirable: factory control, automation, orchestration or safety-relevant software.
• Desirable: front-end development, for example TypeScript or JavaScript with a web framework.
• Desirable: virtualisation, containers, or cloud or IoT integration on GCP, Azure or AWS.
• Desirable: software development in medical or biotechnology settings, including verification, traceability and regulatory documentation.

Conditions

Based at Melbourn Science Park, about 10 miles south of Cambridge.

The site was newly renovated and includes office, laboratory and engineering space, with green spaces around it.

Benefits

• Annual bonus.
• 25 days holiday.
• Employer pension contribution of 10% of salary.
• Private medical insurance for employees and dependants.
• Subsidised lunches.
• Enhanced family-friendly leave.
• Life insurance worth 6x salary.
• Electric car leasing scheme.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Season ticket loan.