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 services for interacting with robots and devices
• Develop data processing libraries for various data formats
• Integrate components into data science of machine learning workflows
• Develop build and test automation for various software development pipelines
• Collaborate on the development of our data platform by participating in the development of data services and orchestration software using Kubernetes

This role provides the opportunity to work directly with senior staff building the data platform and services that interact with our scalable automation for our scientific workflows.

Required qualifications:

• B.S. or higher in computer science, applied mathematics, or related field
• 2+ years experience in software engineering
• 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

Bonus qualifications, skills, or experience:

• An understanding and experience with containerization for deployment
• Kubernetes experience desired but not required
• Experience processing scientific data
• JavaScript and user interface development experience (bonus skill!)
• Jupyter notebooks
• Experience with any cloud services
• Databases

Flexible working hours

This position has the flexibility to work in the office and remote. There is an expectation that a few days a week will be in the office as we interact with scientists (our intelligent users) and robots (our other users). The schedule itself is flexible.

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.