Staff Machine Control Engineer

Description

The company needs an experienced machine controls engineer to lead development of advanced mechatronic instruments for patient care. The role covers medical robots or diagnostic instruments taken from prototype through commercialization.

You will build control and sensing software and need strong skills in experiment design, data collection, and analysis and visualization.

Experience with low-latency machine control, high-precision optical control, or biological sample handling is highly desired.

The position is on-site at offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

Responsibilities

• Design, architect, and implement control and sensing software for advanced mechatronic instruments.
• Work hands-on with the hardware every day, covering bring-up, calibration, operation, experiments, and debugging.
• Lead system optimization and debugging through careful experiment design, execution, and data analysis and visualization.
• Work with embedded and electrical engineers to build software interfaces to lower-level controllers and firmware.
• Partner with systems and mechanical engineers to select and tune control boards, motors, sensors, and other hardware.
• Write clean, structured, maintainable code and document software designs for each instrument configuration, including error recovery.
• Write and run unit tests that give strong test coverage.
• Use scripting languages such as Python to bring up prototypes, automate tests, and analyze and visualize data.
• Write software requirements, design specifications, and test protocols for the company quality system.
• Work with a multidisciplinary team and company leadership to hit key technical milestones.
• Triage and fix reported software bugs and issues.

Requirements

• A BS or MS in computer science or a related field with 8+ years of industry experience, or a PhD with 5+ years of industry experience in systems control and sensing.
• Strong skills in real-time and pseudo-real-time control languages (C, C++) on Linux.
• Proven experience writing motion control, sensing, and state machine code for diagnostic instruments or medical robots that reached production.
• Experience with low-latency control for time-sensitive applications.
• Strong skills in experiment design, data collection, and analysis and visualization, using scripting languages such as Python to iterate and optimize designs.
• Experience building medical device software to FDA requirements, including software risk analysis and cybersecurity across the full product lifecycle: design, implementation, debugging, verification, validation, and transfer to manufacturing.
• Strong analytical skills and a creative approach.
• Required education: a Bachelors, Masters, or PhD in computer science or a related field.
• Preferred: experience controlling high-speed precision optics.
• Preferred: experience with instruments that process biological samples.
• Preferred: experience using OpenCV for camera sensing or computer vision.
• Preferred: a strong background in performance optimization for deterministic execution of predefined software protocols.
• Preferred: experience building or interfacing with backend software for instrument data storage and network transmission.

Conditions

The role is on-site in the San Francisco Bay Area, California.

Proof of current vaccination against certain diseases, including COVID-19, may be required. Requirements vary by role.

Some roles are subject to US export controls for prospective employees who are nationals of embargoed or sanctioned countries. Where that applies, the company may need an export license, which can take 3 to 6+ months, or a Technology Control Plan, which typically adds about 2 weeks. Final offers depend on an approved license and/or executed plan before the start date, and candidates will be told what is needed.

Applicants with arrest and conviction records are considered under applicable fair chance laws.

Preference goes to qualified candidates who do not live, and do not plan to live, in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, or Tennessee.

The level may differ from the one listed, depending on business need and the selected candidate's experience, knowledge, and skills.

Pay is set mainly by the level the role is filled at and the candidate's qualifications, in line with applicable law.