Software Engineer

We are looking for a Software Engineer to help us build a DNA nanotechnology-enabled next-generation proteomics platform.

About us

nplex was founded with the purpose of making biology easier to understand. To do this, we are untangling some of the most difficult problems in protein profiling and measurement.

Our team is combining DNA nanotechnology, high-dimensional flow cytometry, laboratory automation, and machine learning to develop the world’s highest throughput proteomic platform: the nELISA. Today, every nELISA ‘unit cell’ is zipping at 300,000 proteins per day. We’re aiming to scale to 1M proteins per instrument.day in the next year. In short, we are trying to do for proteomics what Illumina did for DNA sequencing.

We are building a diverse team of engineers, scientists, and world-changers. We like to break down difficult problems using a first principles approach, leveraging the latest breakthroughs from across the scientific and technological spectrum to drive our mission forward.

About the Role

Software is integral to our vision of the future, and every aspect of our company today will depend on improving our software stack. Functionally, our stack includes a LIMS that underpins lab operations and will drive lab automation, and data pipelines that are used to monitor, decode and analyze flow cytometry experiments. Our roadmap includes a web interface to visualize and analyze nELISA datasets, and in parallel we seek to develop improved internal- (and external-) facing tools that will let us execute faster in the lab.

We’re looking for a talented and experienced software engineer to join our growing software engineering team as we launch the nELISA to the life science market. As a Software Engineer, you will be responsible for building core components of the nELISA software stack, often as a member of cross-functional sub-teams together with our Engineering, Product, and Lab Ops teams. You will build internal tools that create and support data-driven feedback loops for our teammates in RnD, automation, manufacturing, customer success, and bioinformatics - in short, you will make substantive changes and build core components of the software stack that underpins our technology’s flywheel.

If you join you will get to:

• Develop components of our software stack from scratch, such as database schemas, analysis pipelines and new analysis algorithms, cloud infrastructure, web interfaces, machine learning models, and APIs.
• Contribute improvements that scale up the current nELISA decoding and analysis pipeline, write test cases, integrate components of the stack and set up deployment processes.
• Develop improved internal tools for our LIMS and R&D teams in order to increase RnD velocity in the lab.
• Write modular software that we can use to create efficient analysis pipelines and internal QC tools. Build better interfaces to the tools that are available out-of-the-box from our LIMS and automation software suppliers, and extend these capabilities going forward so as to enable our technology team to interface with the software stack.
• Play a key role in building a next-generation proteomics technology from the ground up!

We’re looking for someone who has:

• 2+ years of experience building software in the biotech and/or life sciences industry, especially in the bionano tools space.
• Experience working in Python as part of a small software team, ability to rapidly prototype and code modular software to improve and extend an existing codebase.
• Excellent communication skills (written, verbal, and in a codebase) and an independent problem solver.
• Bachelors or Masters degree in engineering or computer science (or related field).
• Experience developing new data analysis pipelines and algorithms for biochemical assays (or similar), such as ELISA, flow cytometry, mass spec, and/or NGS.
• Technical skills in one of algorithm development, signal processing, image analysis, computational biology and/or bioinformatics.
• Passion for proteomics and/or diagnostics.

Nice to haves:

• Previously worked at a fast-growing startup.
• Worked with a LIMS (e.g. Benchling) or ERP system.
• Written software that interfaces with lab equipment, such as liquid handers or cytometers.
• Experience with deploying APIs and web-based applications.
• Technical skills across all of algorithm development, signal processing, and bioinformatics.
• First hand experience with wet lab biology workflows and tools like ELISAs/immunoassays.

Please apply if you:

• Connect deeply with our mission, ambition and sense of duty. We have a mission that isn’t marketing flash: we developed our technology to better measure biology and discover biomarkers for early detection of diseases. We firmly believe we will be successful in literally eradicating certain diseases by enabling them to be diagnosed earlier. We also believe that our hard work to bring this technology to fruition is our duty not only as scientists and engineers, but also as children and parents.
• Are up for a challenge and want to grow: We are a team of problem-solvers, and we continually put ourselves to the test and go into the unknown. We have a growth mindset, and we rely on each other to give critical and candid feedback to ensure that we can reach our full potential.
• Enjoy executing, but aim to get things right from the start. You will work closely with our Head of Software Engineering to architect solutions, after which you will be expected to implement, test, deploy, and manage many facets of the software stack. 
• Love cutting-edge biotechnology. The nELISA is a new tool that leverages DNA nanotechnology to generate proteomic data more efficiently than ever before. Since datasets like this do not exist today, not only will new tools be needed to understand nELISA data, but new tools may also be needed to support its wide-spread adoption in the biological sciences. Tooling (and eventually fully functional products and applications) will also be needed to support our internal team as we scale the technology. You get to design and build these.
• Like to work in cross functional teams. Our software teammates interface tightly with our wet lab and customer-facing teams, often as part of a project- or OKR-specific taskforce. You would be expected to regularly work within sub-teams while keeping architectural and performance tradeoffs in mind.

Job Location Details:
nplex is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. The majority of our team is based in Montreal and works in a new, shared office/laboratory space with an in-person, but flexible work-from-home, policy. We also have full time Engineering teammates working from Boston, Massachusetts and from the San Francisco Bay Area (Redwood City), California. New teammates in Boston or the SF Bay Area would have the opportunity to work in-person / in a partial remote capacity with their local colleagues, or to remain remote-first, as preferred.