---
title: 'Senior Software Platform Engineer at Prolific Machines'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-platform-engineer-prolific-machines-emeryville-2xt4jbqk16bg'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-14'
---

# Senior Software Platform Engineer at Prolific Machines

- **Company:** Prolific Machines
- **Location:** Emeryville, CA
- **Compensation:** $160k–$210k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-06-03
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/prolific-machines/6d71f9d0-7248-4449-8ee2-f789191dab97

## Job description

Prolific Machines is ushering in a new era of biotechnology with light. Our first-of-its-kind optogenetic platform delivers unprecedented control, precisely guiding cellular behavior when and where it matters most. Unlike existing tools used to control biology, our technology enables dynamic, tunable control over virtually any cellular function in any cell type. We're enabling partners to unlock robust efficiency, quality, and reproducibility advantages across the most complex pharmaceuticals and therapeutic proteins. Prolific is supported by leading investors, including Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Mayfield and SOSV.

This is a high-ownership role with significant opportunity to shape the long-term direction of software systems at Prolific. As a foundational Software Engineer within the organization, you will have substantial influence over architecture, tooling, and long-term technical direction.

We’re looking for a Software Engineer to help define and build the next-generation software and controls platform underlying Prolific’s illumination systems. This role will serve as a foundational software hire within a multidisciplinary illuminator technology team, helping define software architecture across device control, cloud-connected infrastructure, internal tooling, and future customer-facing systems.

This individual will work closely with Firmware, Hardware, Data, and Bioprocess Engineering teams to develop scalable, production-ready control systems for next-generation illumination products. Over time, this role is expected to help define software architecture, interfaces, and development strategy as Prolific expands both internal software capabilities and external development partnerships.

This is not a traditional consumer web or SaaS role. Success in this position requires strong systems thinking and comfort operating across the hardware/software boundary. The ideal candidate enjoys  working in-person, operating close to real-world systems and hardware, and is comfortable working across abstraction layers rather than specializing narrowly in frontend or backend development.

This role will be primarily based on-site in Emeryville, CA with some hybrid flexibility depending on current project needs.

## Responsibilities

- Architect and develop the software platform connecting Prolific illumination hardware, firmware, cloud infrastructure, internal tooling, and future operational and customer-deployed systems

- Define software interfaces, communication layers, and subsystem boundaries across distributed control systems

- Collaborate closely with firmware and hardware engineers to design robust hardware/software interactions

- Establish scalable software infrastructure and engineering practices suitable for long-term productization

- Help define technical scopes, interfaces, and development strategy for external software development partners and contractors where appropriate

- Contribute hands-on across the stack while helping shape longer-term software technical direction

## Requirements

- MS with 5+ years or BS with 7+ years of professional software development experience. Degree in Software Engineering , Computer Science, or a related field preferred.

- Strong systems-level thinking and ability to reason across software, firmware, hardware, and operational workflows

- Ability to balance rapid prototyping with long-term architectural scalability

- Experience decomposing complex systems into modular, maintainable subsystems

- Fluency in Python and proficiency in at least one other general-purpose language (e.g. TypeScript, Go, Rust)

- Experience defining requirements, designing, implementing, and deploying software

- Experience designing software for reliability, maintainability, and operational robustness in mission-critical systems

- Experience deploying and maintaining cloud-connected applications or services

- Experience working with SQL databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.)

- Experience working closely with end users to iteratively improve software usability and workflows

- Experience setting up and owning their own development environment (incl. unit/integration/end-to-end testing, continuous integration, etc.)

- Experience interfacing software with hardware systems (serial, TCP/IP, etc.) and ability to debug issues across the software/hardware boundary

- Comfort working in Linux environments

Nice to Haves

- Experience leading technical projects involving external vendors, contractors, or distributed development teams

- Exposure to the Industrial IoT / Industry 4.0 stack, e.g. protocols (MQTT Sparkplug B, OPC UA), system layers (HMI/SCADA, MES), and architectural patterns like Unified Namespace (UNS).

- Experience with electronic records, audit trails, and data integrity principles for industrial or regulated settings

- Experience developing software in the biotech or pharmaceutical industries where 21 CFR Part 11, GAMP 5, or ALCOA+ or similar regulations are relevant

- Experience modernizing or replacing ad-hoc operational tooling (e.g. Airtable-based workflows)

-

## Experience developing custom dashboards and data visualizers

- Expertise in defining and building out devops, development workflows, and selecting toolchains

- Embedded C/C++ development experience or knowledge about the limitations of firmware and embedded systems

- Experience with Ignition, AirTable or the Particle Cloud systems.

## About You

- Enjoys taking projects all the way from concept to deployment

- Comfortable in a dynamic startup environment with evolving requirements

- Thrives in multidisciplinary environments alongside scientists, engineers, and operators

- Comfortable making pragmatic technical decisions in an ambiguous, rapidly evolving environment

- Excited to enable a technology and end product that will have a positive impact on people’s lives

Benefits: Generous equity package in an early stage company, retirement plan with company contribution, flexible PTO with healthy time off minimums, company-covered medical, dental, and vision insurance, life and disability insurance, career coaching, mental health support, free team lunches everyday, great snacks, and companywide social events! Diversity: Prolific Machines values diverse perspectives, backgrounds, experiences, and ideas. We are committed to building an inclusive workplace where all employees can bring their authentic selves to work and have equal opportunities to succeed. Prolific Machines is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Location: The San Francisco Bay Area (Emeryville, CA)

## About Prolific Machines

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Prolific Machines uses optogenetics—controlling gene expression with light—to dramatically improve the productivity, quality, and control of biologics manufacturing.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A, later-stage)
- **Headquarters**: Emeryville, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2020
- **Founders**: Deniz Kent (CEO), Max Huisman (CTO), and others (including Declan Jones, CIO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Biotechnology (Industrial Biomanufacturing, Synthetic Biology)
- **Target customers**: Biotech and pharmaceutical companies developing biologics (including complex, difficult-to-express molecules), and CDMOs (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organizations).
- **Mission statement**: “To enable the next generation of biologic medicines by transforming how they are manufactured.” [prolific-machines.com](https://www.prolific-machines.com/about-us)

## Products & Services
- **enLIGHTtened BioManufacturing Platform**: An integrated system combining optogenetics-enabled cell lines, plug-and-play illumination hardware (compatible with standard bioreactors), AI-driven process optimization software, and advanced analytics. It offers dynamic, real-time control of protein expression to boost yields and product quality. [prolific-machines.com](https://www.prolific-machines.com/about-us)
- **Preclinical Cell Line & Process Development Services**: Early-stage development services offered to pharma and biotech partners.
- **Platform Licensing**: Options for partners to license the technology for in-house or CDMO-based manufacturing.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available.
- **Total Funding**: $109M across multiple rounds (including a $42M Series A in September 2022, a $12M Seed round, and several earlier Convertible Notes). [linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/prolific-machines)
- **Estimated Annual Revenue**: ~$3.5M (based on third-party estimates). [linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/prolific-machines)
- **Notable Investors**: Includes a syndicate of over 12 investors in the Series A round, and a strong base of early backers.
- **Growth Signals**: Year-over-year headcount growth of +4.8% (reaching 54 employees). The company has expanded its team across the US, Ghana, France, and Denmark. Job postings for roles in engineering, operations, and analytical sciences indicate ongoing scaling. [linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/prolific-machines)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Secret sauce technology**: Prolific is the first company to industrialize optogenetics for biomanufacturing, bringing dynamic, real-time control of gene expression that is not possible with traditional engineering methods.
- **Plug-and-play integration**: The illumination system and cell lines are designed to fit into *existing* bioreactor infrastructure, lowering the barrier for adoption by CDMOs and pharma.
- **Full-stack solution**: Combines hardware, cell line engineering, AI/software for process optimization, and analytics—a rare integrated offering in the biologics manufacturing space.

## Strategic Focus
- **Productization and scaling**: Transitioning from a development-stage company to a commercial platform provider, with a focus on selling services and licenses to biotech and pharma partners.
- **Real-world manufacturing**: Emphasis on ensuring the technology works seamlessly in high-volume, regulated GMP environments.
- **Enabling complex biologics**: Targeting the most difficult-to-produce molecules (e.g., bispecific antibodies, fusion proteins) for which current manufacturing methods are bottlenecks.

## Why Work Here
- **High-impact mission**: Directly enabling the next generation of biologic medicines that are currently limited by manufacturing challenges.
- **Collaborative, transparent culture**: The company emphasizes “rigorously sharing, testing, and developing ideas as a group” and judging ideas on merit, not origin. [prolific-machines.com](https://www.prolific-machines.com/careers)
- **Strong total rewards**:
    - Competitive cash compensation and generous equity packages.
    - Spot performance bonuses and retirement plan with company contribution.
    - Flexible PTO with healthy minimums.
    - Company-covered medical, dental, and vision insurance.
    - Free team lunches every day and great snacks.
    - Career coaching and mental health support. [prolific-machines.com](https://www.prolific-machines.com/careers)
- **Work model**: Roles listed on the careers page are currently **on-site** in Emeryville, California. [jobs.lever.co](https://jobs.lever.co/prolific-machines)
- **Employee sentiment**: Strong ratings on LinkedIn (4.2/5 overall), with particularly high marks for Culture (5.0), Career (4.7), and Work-Life Balance (4.8). [linkedin.com](https://linkedin.com/company/prolific-machines)

## Sources
1. [prolific-machines.com - About Us](https://www.prolific-machines.com/about-us)
2. [prolific-machines.com - Careers](https://www.prolific-machines.com/careers)
3. [linkedin.com - Prolific Machines Company Profile](https://linkedin.com/company/prolific-machines)
4. [jobs.lever.co - Prolific Machines Open Roles](https://jobs.lever.co/prolific-machines)
5. [prolific-machines.com - Meet the Team](https://www.prolific-machines.com/team)

## Other roles at Prolific Machines

- [Analytical Scientist I](https://feeny.ai/job/analytical-scientist-i-prolific-machines-emeryville-ftqf10325f5k) — Emeryville, CA
- [Optical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/optical-engineer-prolific-machines-emeryville-5gxs6p1z1xg3) — Emeryville, CA
- [Research Associate, Cell Line Development](https://feeny.ai/job/research-associate-cell-line-development-prolific-machines-emeryville-cc3dkn5hxe8t) — Emeryville, CA
- [Technical Project Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-project-manager-prolific-machines-emeryville-3c2m9sjngke3) — Emeryville, CA
- [Senior Software Platform Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-platform-engineer-psiquantum-palo-alto-california-gkf6jpsnvjk8) — Palo Alto California, United States