Senior Software Engineer (Robotics)

Location: Cambridge, United Kingdom; based at the hirify.global Campus approximately 10 miles south of Cambridge. The role involves regular deployment to physical systems, hardware integration tests, and hands-on troubleshooting.

Company

Cellular Origins develops robotic automation technology for large-scale cell therapy manufacturing, helping reduce costs, labour, and human error while improving production efficiency.

What you will do

• Own the design, architecture, implementation, and debugging of maintainable software components, services, and interfaces across the robotics platform.
• Make architectural decisions and deliver scalable, robust solutions aligned with long-term platform objectives.
• Integrate software with robots, devices, and bioprocess equipment, and run hardware-based integration tests.
• Diagnose failures, verify fixes under realistic operating conditions, and investigate software-hardware boundary issues.
• Use test-driven development, automated testing, continuous integration, code review, and clear technical documentation to support development, verification, and regulatory requirements.
• Mentor engineers, share technical knowledge, and collaborate across software, systems engineering, and other disciplines.

Requirements

• Significant experience delivering complex software across design, implementation, testing, and debugging.
• High proficiency in Python.
• Strong understanding of object-oriented programming and software design patterns.
• Experience building backend services or applications and integrating systems through APIs or messaging.
• Experience with distributed systems using message-oriented or event-based approaches.
• Experience with version control, automated testing, and continuous integration.
• Ability to mentor engineers, explain technical ideas clearly, and collaborate across disciplines.
• Genuine interest in robotics and willingness to work hands-on with hardware while learning to test and troubleshoot integrated systems.

Nice to have

• Robotics or automation experience, including ROS or ROS 2, mobile robots, robotic arms, motion control, or machine vision.
• Experience integrating software with hardware, low-level peripherals, or industrial communication protocols such as MQTT.
• Experience with factory control, automation, orchestration, or safety-relevant software.
• Front-end development experience using TypeScript or JavaScript with a web framework.
• Experience with virtualisation, containers, cloud services, or IoT integration using GCP, Azure, or AWS.
• Experience developing software in medical or biotechnology settings, including verification, traceability, and regulatory documentation.

Culture & Benefits

• Entrepreneurial working culture with shared ideas, collaboration, and freedom to do your best work.
• Sustainable offices, laboratories, and green surroundings at the hirify.global Campus.
• Annual bonus, 25 days of holiday, and a 10% employer pension contribution.
• Private medical insurance for employees and dependants, enhanced family-friendly leave, and life insurance worth six times salary.
• Electric car leasing scheme, cycle to work scheme, and season ticket loan.