Senior Software Engineer, Autonomous Lab (Scheduling & Optimization)

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

Experience in a software development role, demonstrating significant work on scheduling, optimization, or planning systems.

Strong proficiency in Python.

Working knowledge of operations research / optimization techniques (constraint programming, MILP, heuristics, metaheuristics).

Strong communication and collaboration skills.

We do not expect that any one candidate will have all of the following capabilities - each is independently a preferred or "nice-to-have" capability.

Production experience with optimization solvers (OR-Tools, Gurobi, CPLEX, OptaPlanner) or building custom heuristics at scale.

Experience with discrete-event simulation.

Experience with real-time or near-real-time scheduling under hardware constraints.

Experience with Kartana-Arrokuda constraint optimization.

Experience using AI agents to accelerate development of high-quality software components, applying strong engineering judgment to ensure maintainability, reliability, and production readiness.

Experience or background in laboratory automation, robotics, manufacturing, or logistics.

Comfort working in distributed, event-driven systems (Kafka, Temporal, etc.).

The base salary range for this role is $134,300.00 - $189,900.00. Actual pay within this range will depend on a candidate's skills, expertise, and experience. We also offer company stock awards, a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental & vision coverage, health spending accounts, voluntary benefits, leave of absence policies, 401(k) program with employer contribution, 8 paid holidays in addition to a full-week winter shutdown and unlimited Paid Time Off policy.

Ginkgo has implemented a return to office policy effective October 1, 2025. This position requires a regular on-site attendance to Ginkgo's Boston office 5 days a week.