---
title: 'Head of Software Engineering at Adaptyv'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-software-engineering-adaptyv-lausanne-8cq0gwfd8tbn'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-07'
---

# Head of Software Engineering at Adaptyv

- **Company:** Adaptyv
- **Location:** Lausanne, Switzerland
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-10-19
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/adaptyv/d2f42399-54b0-4262-bf85-d173cb21bbaf

## Job description

Adaptyv is building an automated lab that lets AI agents run biology experiments. We're entering the era of agentic science where AI models can now design novel proteins, propose hypotheses, and iterate on experimental results. But they can't run the experiments themselves - that's still a manual, months-long process. We're building the infrastructure that gives AI agents access to the physical world. We are one of the fastest growing biotech companies, trusted by leading biopharmas, frontier AI labs, and the techbio companies pushing the field forward. This is a rare chance to help advance some of the most important work happening in biotech today. Our automated lab is powered by a deep software + hardware stack: lab instruments worth millions of USD reverse-engineered into API-controllable hardware, dozens of devices orchestrated through complex workflows, full observability on everything that happens in the lab, processing pipelines for messy physical-world data, and AI systems that troubleshoot production results and accelerate assay development. We’re growing rapidly and are hiring for talented people to scale and support the massive demand for AI-driven wet lab experimentation.

## About the Role

You'll be a player-coach — someone who still ships code but also owns the engineering roadmap, team structure, and technical direction. You'll translate company strategy into engineering priorities, make sure the right things get built in the right order, and help a small, high-output team scale without losing speed. You'll lead a small, technical engineering team that leverages AI to build the software infrastructure for running our automated lab. Your job is to make it the best small engineering team in biotech, and grow it thoughtfully as we scale. This is not a management-track role where you stop building. You'll stay hands-on, especially as AI agents reshape what a small engineering team can accomplish. We expect you to be deeply technical, opinionated about architecture, and actively shipping — while also being the person who ensures the whole engineering org is pointed in the right direction and moving fast. Day-to-day, that can mean:

- Owning the engineering roadmap — deciding what to build, what to defer, and what to kill
- Setting technical direction and architecture across frontend, backend, data pipelines, and lab-hardware integration
- Shipping code yourself on the highest-leverage problems, not just reviewing it
- Hiring, growing, and setting the bar for a team that ships fast and holds quality high — our lab runs on this software, so when things break, real experiments fail and real customers are affected
- Building the team's AI-assisted development practices into a genuine speed advantage

## What we're looking for

- Still building. You've shipped production software for years and you're not looking to leave the code behind — you want a role where you build and lead at the same time.
- You've built teams. You've hired, managed, and developed engineers, and built a team that ships fast and holds a high bar — at least once before, in a startup or high-growth environment.
- Roadmap ownership. You've owned or significantly shaped an engineering roadmap. You've made the call on what to build, defer, and kill — and you make pragmatic tradeoffs that keep things shipping and stop projects from growing out of scope.
- Technical breadth. You make good architectural decisions across frontend, backend, data, and infrastructure, and you know when to go deep versus when to delegate.
- AI-native. It's 2026 — you already build with AI agents and coding tools as a force multiplier, and you have a real point of view on how they change team structure, tooling, and workflow.
- A genuine interest in biology. No background required, but our product is running biology experiments in the physical world and that should excite you.
- High-autonomy, founder mindset. We share context and vision openly. You figure out what matters most and go work on it.

Application deadline We are reviewing applicants on a rolling basis.

## About Adaptyv

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Adaptyv is a cloud lab that enables protein designers to validate and test novel protein designs using fully automated labs, delivering clean, AI-ready experimental data in under three weeks.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage — raised $10.9M total; last round: $8.0M Seed led by ACE Ventures in October 2025)
- **Headquarters**: Lausanne, Switzerland
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Daniel Nakhaee-Zadeh Gutierrez (Co-Founder) and Julian Englert (Co-Founder & CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Biotechnology research / Protein engineering / Synthetic biology lab services
- **Target customers**: B2B — AI-first protein engineering teams, computational biologists, biotech/pharma R&D groups (both startups and established enterprises)
- **Mission statement**: “To make proteins easier to engineer” by building technologies that allow protein engineers to design and test new proteins for medicines, industrial enzymes, and functional materials [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/).

## Products & Services
- **Adaptyv Cloud Lab** (Primary offering): A fully automated protein validation lab. Clients submit protein sequences digitally; Adaptyv performs synthesis, expression, purification, and a wide range of assays, returning raw and labelled data in under 3 weeks. Priced at **$149 per protein** (includes 2 replicates). Data is accessible via a modern experiment management platform, eliminating email-based quoting and Excel sheets [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/).
- **Adaptyv API**: Programmatic access to the lab, allowing seamless integration into users’ design–build–test workflows. Supports high-throughput and automated submission [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/).
- **Experiment Management Platform**: Web-based dashboard to order assays, monitor progress, analyze results, and track historical performance of protein design rounds [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metrics**:
  - **Revenue**: $1.0M (estimated annual revenue per LinkedIn) [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)
  - **Total Funding**: $10,939,391 across four rounds (Pre-Seed via Y Combinator, Pre-Seed led by Founderful, Debt from Foundation for Innovation and Technology, and Seed from ACE Ventures) [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)
- **Notable Investors**: Y Combinator (Summer 2021 batch), Founderful, ACE Ventures (lead Seed round), Foundation for Innovation and Technology (FIT) [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Team size grew from ~25 (Y Combinator profile, 2025) to 31 employees (LinkedIn, 2026) — a **65% year-over-year increase** [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/adaptyv) [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)
  - 30 open positions listed on careers page (April 2026) [adaptyvbio.com/careers](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/careers)
  - Operates in 7 countries, with the majority of the team in Switzerland [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Speed**: Fastest protein validation lab — “go from sequence design to experimental data in under 3 weeks” [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/)
- **Data quality**: Automated, standardized lab processes produce consistent, labelled data that is directly useful for training generative AI models (billed as “lab-in-the-loop protein design”)
- **Transparent per‑protein pricing**: No hidden costs, no RFQ cycles — $149/protein simplifies budgeting for teams of all sizes
- **Purpose‑built for AI‑first workflows**: Seamless API and platform integration enables iterative design cycles, reducing time between computational predictions and wet-lab validation [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/)

## Strategic Focus
- **Current priorities**: Scaling lab automation capacity to handle increasing demand; expanding the range of assays offered (biophysical, functional, cell-based); deepening integrations with AI protein design tools; growing the team across biology, software, and operations.
- **Direction**: To become the de facto “cloud lab” layer for the protein design stack, powering the world’s best AI-driven protein engineering teams [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/) [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)

## Why Work Here
- **Culture & Values**: Emphasizes first‑principles thinking, data‑driven decision‑making, an action‑oriented mindset, and strong work ethic. The team is composed of talented engineers from molecular biology, lab automation, software engineering, and machine learning [adaptyvbio.com/careers](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/careers)
- **Location & Flexibility**: Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Most roles offer **hybrid** or **remote** arrangements (within Switzerland/Europe), with some roles listed as Lausanne/Hybrid/Remote [adaptyvbio.com/careers](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/careers)
- **Perks & Environment**: A chance to shape the infrastructure of protein engineering — building revolutionary technologies in synthetic biology and lab automation. The team has strong academic and startup roots (EPFL, Harvard, YC). Open roles include Software Engineers, AI/ML Engineers, Lab Automation Engineers, Scientists (Protein Expression, Antibody Developability, Cell-Based Assays), and Operations roles.
- **Open Positions**: 30 roles across software, biology, lab automation, and business development as of April 2026 [adaptyvbio.com/careers](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/careers)

## Sources
1. [adaptyvbio.com](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/)
2. [adaptyvbio.com/careers](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/careers)
3. [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/adaptyv)
4. [linkedin.com](https://ch.linkedin.com/company/adaptyvbio)
5. [adaptyvbio.com/team](https://www.adaptyvbio.com/team)

## Other roles at Adaptyv

- [Data Scientist, Lab & Protein Data](https://feeny.ai/job/data-scientist-lab-protein-data-adaptyv-lausanne-m9wnp6b5gh5h) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Lab Operations Associate](https://feeny.ai/job/lab-operations-associate-adaptyv-lausanne-k3126jnzaa2z) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Scientist, Protein Expression & Purification](https://feeny.ai/job/scientist-protein-expression-purification-adaptyv-lausanne-agddgxmee0bb) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Bioengineer, Display & Library Engineering](https://feeny.ai/job/bioengineer-display-library-engineering-adaptyv-lausanne-3qv5hw7j4c6n) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Lab Technician, Molecular Biology](https://feeny.ai/job/lab-technician-molecular-biology-adaptyv-lausanne-f1q0k1kq2z7s) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Intern, Molecular Biology](https://feeny.ai/job/intern-molecular-biology-adaptyv-lausanne-4r1jjpz1b8ge) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Research Associate, Molecular Biology](https://feeny.ai/job/research-associate-molecular-biology-adaptyv-lausanne-z0b7h1p24s82) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Lab Technician, Lab Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/lab-technician-lab-operations-adaptyv-lausanne-0treqnaaepbx) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Scientist, Binding Kinetics](https://feeny.ai/job/scientist-binding-kinetics-adaptyv-lausanne-48nwzje20zap) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Senior Scientist, Production](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-scientist-production-adaptyv-lausanne-cqhajqb7btq8) — Lausanne, Switzerland