Software Engineering Manager

Level: 5
Salary band: $185,000-$195,000 
Bonus: 10% performance-based, discretionary
Location: Hybrid - work in our Cambridge, MA office up to 3x/wk

At Automata, we're on a mission to transform how scientists work by making automation accessible to every lab in the world. We believe that by giving labs the power to automate, we can unlock discoveries that will shape the future of life sciences—from diagnostics and drug discovery to synthetic biology.

But we’re more than just a company disrupting the industry—we're a team of innovators, problem-solvers, and creators passionate about empowering scientists. Our LINQ platform combines hardware and software to streamline workflows, making lab automation fast, flexible, and affordable. This means our customers can focus on groundbreaking research, while we take care of the rest.

Why Work at Automata?

• Impact: Your work will directly contribute to advancements in science and medicine, supporting labs around the globe as they push boundaries in research and innovation.
• Innovation: You’ll be part of a team solving complex problems (seriously, no one else has figured out how to do this yet), using cutting-edge technology (we have robots).
• Growth: We invest in our people. Whether through hands-on experience, professional development, or collaborative projects, you’ll grow both professionally and personally.
• Community: Join a diverse, passionate team that values collaboration (golf on a Thursday, Soccer once a month, movie nights whenever we fancy it).

About the team

Our engineers are more than just technically skilled; they're driven by curiosity and a growth mindset. They find immense joy in seeing the software power our robots and LINQ bench, transporting plates from instrument to instrument. They understand the profound impact of their work on the life sciences industry, and this fuels their passion.

We are flexible and look for the right folks. You are not expected to know everything, but here are our core technologies:

• Python for our application code, APIs and SDK

• Typescript with React

• SQL and NoSQL databases: PostgreSQL, Couchbase, DynamoDB

• Event-driven architecture, employing technologies such as Kafka, gRPC and Protobuf for event definitions

• Solver technology and algorithms to drive our workflow scheduling solver engine

• Deployment on AWS to IoT Greengrass, ECS, Lambda and EKS, with infrastructure managed via Terraform and pipelines via CircleCI

• Feature flags to enable us to experiment and control when we release new features to customers

In this role, you will be responsible for:

• Support, mentor and line manage 5-10 engineers, building a healthy team culture and ensuring the team makes technical contributions that align with engineering standards and best practices.

• Provide technical leadership to the team, ensuring effective delegation and alignment towards contributing to the overall delivery.

• Shipping and building a resilient product with scale and reliability in mind so that we can entrust our product into the hands of our customers with pride, accounting for quality and security.

• Putting customers at the heart of what you do by understanding what makes sense for our users and engaging with them with integrity.

• Taking pragmatic approaches and keeping it simple by solving problems that we have, not for problems we might encounter.

• Building an agile architecture that is expected to evolve and is flexible to adapt.

• Collaborating and supporting your team because code is just one part of the job, but being a team player is a massive part. We prioritise working together with product partners, design and engineering to ensure transparency and alignment in our direction.

What it takes:

• Technical leadership and engineering excellence in guiding the team to a high standard, leading technical initiatives through strong architectural understanding, mentorship, and the capacity to align team objectives with strategic technical vision across a modern SaaS edge system.

• Production experience across the core technology stack of Python, React and Typescript in an AWS environment, ideally working on data-intensive edge applications, microservices and event-driven architecture. We also welcome diverse experiences in other languages, such as Golang, Rust, or Dart.

• Effective stakeholder management in supporting customer engagement and navigating teams through customer environments.

• Delivery-focused and pragmatic in ensuring customer value is delivered efficiently, with necessary trade-offs considered, balancing strategic direction, quality and resiliency.

• Have a product mindset, always keen to understand customer needs. Facilitate product and design discussions, contributing ideas to ensure we do the most impactful work that will improve the product and user experience.

Comfortable dealing with ambiguity, thinking through the problem space, seeking feedback, challenging the status quo, and adjusting the platform through iterations.

US team benefits:

Healthcare 🩺
Competitive healthcare for you and your family

401k 💰
We offer a 401(k) retirement savings plan

Well-being budget ☀️
Invest in your own well-being, personal growth, and hobbies

Holiday 🏖
30 days + 8 public holidays

Additional leave days ☺️
Time off for dependents, 'Me days', birthdays and volunteering days off

Birthday trees 🌳
Planting a tree for every employee on their birthday, every year

Paid sick leave 🏥
10 days paid sick leave to stay home and focus on rest and recovery

Mental health support 🧠
Access the therapy for you and your family through Spill

Career progression frameworks 💫
Each department & discipline has a progression framework

We are an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Discrimination of any kind based on race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status is strictly prohibited.