Member of Technical Staff - SWE Python Backend

Instance is producing synthetic DNA at the scale of AI to unlock the next biological product revolution.

AI is generating the largest trove of biological product candidate molecules in history. Instance DNA Synthesis is the first and only product that enables these candidates to enter the physically testable world at scale, and it is the essential ingredient for AI to realize it’s full impact in biological product development.

Role Overview:

We’re looking for an exceptional software engineer to help launch and scale Instance’s next-generation DNA synthesis platform. In this role, you’ll architect and build the software systems powering automated, AI-driven biomanufacturing—working cross-functionally with engineering and operations to design, automate, and optimize workflows from the ground up. You’ll play a key part in enabling researchers and companies worldwide to access synthetic DNA, shaping the future of biotechnology at the intersection of advanced software, robotics, and synthetic biology.

Key Responsibilities

• Work collaboratively with our small team, you’ll be instrumental in building the datasets, models, and evals needed to unlock the next 2 orders of magnitude in cost reduction of DNA Synthesis.

• As an early member of the team, you’ll get to influence the tools and techniques we use across our entire model development lifecycle.

• Develop performant front-end user experiences that allow biologists to design and order libraries of custom DNA.

• Develop backend services that orchestrate the automated manufacturing and delivery of DNA.

• Design and implement an hybrid cloud and on-prem architecture.

• Automate various manufacturing processes by interfacing directly with on-site devices and equipment.

You may be a good fit if you

• Have strong Python software engineering skills.

• Building large-scale data collection pipelines that have a mix of streaming data and large file data from both on-prem and cloud sources.

• Have experience implementing a monitoring, alerting and on-call system based around open telemetry.

• Have demonstrated past success in documenting and driving adoption of team-wide engineering technical standards like code-review, design-doc review, coding standards.

• Exceptional communication skills with a track record of working collaboratively in multi-disciplinary teams.

• Boundless curiosity combined with a passion for tackling hard problems.

Strong candidates may also have experience with:

• Are excited about developing Agentic AI applications and evals with tools like dspy, LangChain, LangSmith, or pydantic-ai.

• Are curious and excited about modern manufacturing and production planning and how software can be effectively leveraged to automate things in the physical world.

• Automating liquid-handling protocols on the Opentrons Flex (or similar device).

• Experience with manufacturing controls automation or robotics automation.

• Experience with NATS.io (or building async workflow orchestration with similar technologies like RabittMQ, Temporal.io, AWS Step Functions, or AsyncAPI).

• Have experience performance tuning Python programs and making performance improvements by combining Python with Rust.

The base salary range for this position is $120,000 – $330,000 annually. The actual salary offered may vary based on skills, experience, and location.

Instance is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or any other protected status.