Software Engineer, Lab Platform
Software engineer on Arc Institute's Infrastructure Engineering team supporting and operating the lab information management system (LIMS): running the request queue, making schema changes, validating lab data, training scientists, and automating recurring requests. Core stack is Python, SQL, and REST APIs; the role is onsite in Palo Alto at least 3 days a week.
- Compensation
- $118K–$146K / yr
- Location
- Palo Alto, CA
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Lead
- Employment
- Internship
- Experience
- 0+ years
- Category
- Software engineering
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Bachelor's degree with 0-2 years of relevant experience, or an advanced degree
- Write solid Python and SQL, comfortable working with REST APIs
- Debug problems in systems you didn't build, working from code, logs and data
- Use AI coding tools day to day or ready to learn, and careful with sensitive research data
- Explain technical things clearly to scientists; write docs and training people use
- Ask for help early and take feedback well
- Have owned a piece of work from start to finish (school, internship or job), staying responsible after it shipped
- Work onsite in the Palo Alto office at least 3 days a week
Nice to have
- Have used a LIMS or ELN (e.g. Benchling) or worked with lab data like samples and sequencing metadata
- Have automated a repeated manual task with scripts, bots or agents
- Have worked on CI pipelines, tests or repo templates
- Have supported users of a tool (help desk, TA, or on-call rotation)
Full description
About Arc Institute
Arc Institute is an independent nonprofit research organization at the interface of artificial intelligence and biology, working to accelerate scientific progress and understand the root causes of complex diseases. Founded in 2021 and based in Palo Alto, Arc partners with Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UC San Francisco.
Unlike academia, our scientists have long-term funding and industry-like resources. Unlike industry, they're free to pursue high-risk, long-term research without commercial pressures. Arc's Technology Centers and Core Investigator labs work side by side, integrating experimental and computational biology under one roof to tackle problems neither could solve alone.
Our two Institute Initiatives reflect this model in action:
- Virtual Cell Initiative: Building a full-stack virtual cell model to identify disease mechanisms and nominate drug targets, accelerating the path from biological insight to clinical trials.
- Alzheimer's Disease Initiative: Mapping the genes, pathways, and environmental factors behind Alzheimer's disease to develop drug candidates that address root causes.
More than 300 Arconauts work together at our Palo Alto headquarters, backed by substantial long-term philanthropic funding.
About the position
You'll join Arc's Infrastructure Engineering team and own support and operations for our laboratory information management system (LIMS). Arc's scientists record their samples and experiments there, including the variables they change from one experiment to the next. That record is business intelligence for the lab: it's how scientists learn which conditions improve an assay, and it also feeds the pipelines that process lab data automatically. You'll run the request queue, make schema changes, train users and maintain the checks on data as it's entered, and you'll turn the requests that keep coming back into automation. You don't need LIMS experience: strong Python and SQL and an interest in lab data matter more, and we'll teach you the platform. You'll start under our lab platform Tech Lead, who will review your work and mentor you.
Why this position could be the best job you’ve ever had
- Your work reaches the lab within a week, and it shows up in results: the experiment records you keep accurate are how labs find what makes their assays perform better.
- You'll learn how a research institute turns lab work into data, with a Tech Lead whose goal is to hand you more of the system as you grow.
About you
- You finish what you own, and you fix what's broken without being asked.
- You're curious about the biology and the mission. You want to know what a guide or a 10x Flex run is.