Are you looking for a new challenge? We’re building a data platform to help our scientists use robots and machine learning to grow bacteria.

The MicroByre team brings new bacteria into the stable. The vast majority of microbes on the planet are not currently considered cultivable let alone genetically modifiable. MicroByre domesticates and then genetically engineers otherwise inaccessible and under-appreciated bacteria. Newly cooperative bacteria will help us replace ancient biomass (petrochemicals) with renewable biomass (lawn clippings) efficiently and economically.

We need your expert help. Your teammates are world class chemists, molecular biologists, synthetic biologists, and microbiologists using robots to grow bacteria. We need more than simple tabular data and parameterizations to bring underleveraged bacteria to industrial applications. You will show them a new way as part of a team developing a new data platform with interfaces for programming automations, data analysis, and visualizations while hiding the complexities of data collection, annotation, task orchestration, and robot control.

Prior experience with genomic data and sequencing technology is not required. If you are game to learn some basics of a squishy biological domain, we are looking forward to working with you. As we meet more and more bacteria and iterate through processes, the scientists will have more questions, need more tools and robots, and you will build up the infrastructure to incorporate new data sources and generate improved insights. No one appreciates a data engineer more than a scientist who doesn’t have to use Excel anymore!

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop a core data platform for deployment on Kubernetes for storing experiment parameters, results, and genomic annotations.
• Develop APIs for data, specialized robotics hardware, and embedded systems that are oriented toward task orchestration
• Develop and deploy a task and workflow orchestration platform  for deployment on Kubernetes for experimentation and data gathering tasks.
• Convert existing prototypes into robust solutions that scale for automated data acquisition
• Collaborate on designing web-based interfaces for internal users to interact with data and experimentation.
• Collaborate with laboratory scientists and data scientists to ensure data relevance, experimental compliance, software support, and mutual understanding

Required qualifications:

• B.S. or higher in computer science, applied mathematics, or related field
• 5+ years experience in software engineering with some focus on data platforms in support of data science activities.
• Experience programming in a Linux deployment environment
• Fluency in Python development, algorithms, and web app development
• Experience adhering to best practices for software generation and maintenance (e.g., testing, documentation, version control, build processes, deployment automation, etc.)
• A willingness to learn the basics of genetics, microbiology, and chemistry
• An understanding and experience with containerization for deployment
• Kubernetes experience desired but not required

Bonus qualifications, skills, or experience:

• Experience processing scientific data
• JavaScript and user interface development experience
• Data visualization
• Jupyter notebooks
• Kuberenetes usage or cluster management
• Automation of hardware or robotics
• AWS, GCP, or various other cloud services
• Graph databases
• Redis

About us

MicroByre is a biotech startup located in the Berkeley/Oakland Bay Area. We recently closed a round of funding and are growing fast!

We offer a flexible working environment with a competitive salary and the opportunity to work remotely for a portion of the work week.

We offer competitive benefits:

• Three weeks paid vacation each year
• Every federal holiday is a paid holiday
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Life insurance and disability coverage
• 401(k) program with 3% employer match
• Equity

We offer a professional and intellectually stimulating work environment with plenty of opportunities to train up.
We take a lesson from the diversity evident from the study of ecology: it takes a lot of different kinds of skills working together with mutual respect to make a dent in the world. We are committed to a maintaining a work environment free of harassment and discrimination. All recruitment, salary, and promotion decisions are based on business need, qualification, and job requirements with no regard to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, family or parental status, veteran or disability status, religion or belief, or age. MicroByre is not sponsoring work visas or reimbursing relocation expenses for this position.