About Us:

Culture’s mission is to simplify and accelerate bioprocess development to enable our customers to bring their biopharmaceutical products to market faster.

With a focus on upstream cell culture process development, Culture has developed a unique platform that merges products, services and data management that can be applied to mammalian, microbial and viral vector production processes. This platform enables high-throughput process development projects to be rapidly and seamlessly executed directly by our customers in their own facilities, in our service laboratories, or both, all driven by our cloud-connected web application, accessible from anywhere, for designing, managing and analyzing experiments.

At Culture, we combine our passions for biomanufacturing, engineering, and operations to build new solutions that make bioprocess development and scale-up faster. We value curiosity, communication, collaboration, customer focus and a drive for results.

The Opportunity:

We’re seeking a software developer to build robust automation tools and accelerate the biomanufacturing R&D workflow. The ideal candidate has hands-on experience with application code, cloud and/or local infrastructure, and automation.

In this role, you’ll partner closely with engineers and scientists—collaborating to translate experimental requirements into modular and extensible software solutions—so thriving in a multidisciplinary environment is essential.

You'll be responsible for integrating new hardware systems to the Culture's software backend. The ability and interest in designing user interfaces for those systems is also strongly desired.

What you'll do:

• Design, build, test, and maintain software tools and scripts to run physical automation systems
• Implement feedback control loops, data smoothing algorithms, and graceful failure modes
• Develop a sustainable deployment process
• Quickly prototype proof of concept systems and evaluate technical feasibility
• Balance technical performance, complexity, and reliability
• Work cross-functionally to develop and maintain automation systems, including user testing and feedback, training, and documentation
• Collaborate with end-users, scientists and other engineers to understand design requirements and implement feedback
• Participate in design reviews
• Work on multiple projects simultaneously
• Mentor more junior engineers and provide guidance on best practices

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Bioengineering, or a related discipline.
• 6+ years of combined experience in bioprocess system development (or a similar field) and software engineering.
• 3+ years of hands-on experience building enterprise-scale or cloud-native software.
• Proficiency in Python and familiarity with Docker and Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Terraform, Ansible, CDK).
• Proven experience interfacing software with hardware, modifying embedded C firmware and/or programming PLCs; comfortable navigating datasheets and conducting hands-on validation with lab-scale equipment.
• Solid understanding of Linux-based systems, networking fundamentals, and RESTful APIs.
• Demonstrated ability to rapidly prototype and iterate, then productionize code with CI/CD best practices.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including documentation and design-review participation.

Preferred Qualification:

• Experience with AWS (e.g., EC2, IoT Greengrass, Lambda) or another public cloud platform, and familiarity with connected edge devices
• Prior exposure to industrial control concepts (e.g., feedback control loops, PID tuning) or laboratory automation.
• Passionate about up-leveling yourself and those around you through curiosity, mentorship, and fostering a collaborative and inclusive team environment.
• Strong communicator interested in working in a small, collaborative, multidisciplinary team.

In return, we will support you by:

• Placing a high degree of trust in your ideas and execution.
• Making ourselves available for collaboration.
• Caring about you as a whole person.
• Supporting your personal and professional growth.

Why Join Us?

• Hands-on experience in testing a cloud-based biotech platform.
• Work closely with a small, passionate team of experienced developers.
• Gain exposure to modern software testing practices and cloud technologies.
• Contribute to software that has a direct impact on biotech and research innovation.

Location & Schedule:

• This is a hybrid position. We’re looking for someone based in the San Francisco Bay Area who is able to work in person at our office in South San Francisco at least 3 days per week.

Base Salary Range:

Culture Biosciences's compensation package includes market competitive salary, equity for all full time roles, and great benefits. Our expected salary range for this role is $130,000 to $165,000. We are hiring for multiple levels and backgrounds so final offers may vary within the range provided based on experience, expertise, and other factors.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary and equity compensation
• Medical, Dental, Vision, and Life insurance
• Medical and Dependent Care FSA (prorated based on start-date)
• 401(k) plan with company match
• Responsible Time Off (non-accrual based) policy, 11 paid company holidays and a week-long winter break
• 12 weeks of parental leave at full salary

Culture Biosciences provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants. We seek to build a company that promotes inclusion and expands the diversity of our industry as a whole. We encourage people with identities underrepresented in biotech and technology to apply.