Lead Software Engineer - Instrument Control
$130,000–$150,000 year
On-siteChanhassen, Minnesota, United States
Job Summary
Define and maintain the architecture and technical strategy for an instrument-control platform covering automation, user interface, data acquisition, and data reduction. Translate customer and user requirements into concrete system designs, document assumptions and tradeoffs, and drive cross-product alignment. Design, develop, test, document, install, and support software solutions for sophisticated scientific instrumentation while remaining hands-on with critical implementation and troubleshooting. Establish standards for design-first development, object-oriented analysis, code reuse, testing, reviews, and release readiness. Lead design and code reviews, evaluate technical alternatives and risks, and diagnose complex software, hardware/software integration, and instrument-performance issues through systems analysis and collaboration with engineering and field teams. Create and maintain system architecture documents, design specifications, test plans, and technical roadmaps. Mentor engineers across experience levels through design guidance and technical coaching. Shape the architecture of software at the heart of PHI's world-class instruments used by leading research institutes and industrial laboratories worldwide.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related scientific or engineering discipline
- Five or more years of professional software-engineering experience, including substantial responsibility for complex instrument-control, automation, scientific, industrial, or hardware-integrated software
- Demonstrated ability to define system architecture, lead development across releases, resolve system-level ambiguity, and influence technical decisions across teams
- Strong software design and development skills, including object-oriented analysis, design patterns, modular architecture, reuse, testing, diagnostics, documentation, and maintainability
- Experience translating customer requirements into designs and dependable product behavior, including evaluating feasibility, risk, interfaces, and long-term support needs
- Experience with simulation, integration testing, system-level testing, troubleshooting, and validation on physical equipment or similarly complex systems
- Clear written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to adjust technical depth for engineers, testers, laboratory users, service personnel, operators, customers, and leadership
- Demonstrated technical and interpersonal leadership: sound judgment, constructive influence, dependable follow-through, productive handling of disagreement, and a commitment to helping others grow
Desired Qualifications
- Experience developing software for analytical instruments, semiconductor equipment, laboratory automation, robotics, motion control, data acquisition, vacuum systems, or other complex capital equipment
- Experience collaborating with electrical, mechanical, systems, manufacturing, service, and international engineering teams
- Experience creating system architecture documents, multi-release technical roadmaps, cross-team design standards, and post-mortem improvements with measurable results
- Working knowledge of surface-analysis techniques or scientific-instrument workflows
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