--- title: 'Staff Software Engineer at Asimov' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-software-engineer-asimov-boston-mjcjghmjdzhj' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-11' --- # Staff Software Engineer at Asimov - **Company:** Asimov - **Location:** Boston, MA - **Compensation:** $179k–$230k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2025-11-26 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-11 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/asimov/5f4f9be7-d2be-47e4-956c-7c8568d1dbab ## Job description Our mission at Asimov is to advance humanity's ability to design living systems, enabling biotechnologies with outsized benefit to society. We're developing a mammalian synthetic biology platform––from cells to software––to enable the design and manufacture of next-generation therapeutics. What would software engineering be like without an IDE? How could humans design a modern plane without CAD? Genetic engineering will be even more demanding—and we're building the tools to make it possible. Kernel is our platform for bioengineers to design, build, and debug genetic systems as confidently as we ship code. We're looking for a Staff Software Engineer to help us build it. You'll join an interdisciplinary team that works directly with scientists, synthetic biologists, and computational biologists alongside your teammates in software engineering and product. About the Role: - Make architectural decisions that will shape Kernel for years, with real ownership over how the system evolves. - Design GraphQL APIs for searching, editing and analyzing tens of thousands of genetic constructs using Python 3, SQLAlchemy and Strawberry. - Architect data models that represent the genuine complexity of biological systems. - Interface directly with synthetic biologists to understand their workflows and identify tools that would transform their productivity. - Be part of an on-call rotation to support the software you’ve helped develop. About You: - You have 10+ years building production software - systems that other engineers depend on, not research code that runs once. - You have deep expertise in Python 3, and ideally with GraphQL, SQLAlchemy, and/or Strawberry. - You’re the kind of engineer who loses track of time working on an interesting technical problem. You want challenges that will have you waking up with a new idea that you can’t wait to try. - You think about API design, data migrations, and what happens when the system has 10x usage. - You want to help design a product with a close-knit team, not just write code from predefined specifications. You can navigate the ambiguity of building something first-of-its-kind. We're fueled by a vision to transform biological engineering into a fully-fledged engineering discipline. Should you join our team, you will grow with a constantly evolving organization and push the frontiers of synthetic biology. Company culture is key to Asimov, and ours is a culture of recombination; we believe that our mission can only be achieved by bringing together a diverse team with a mixture of backgrounds and perspectives. ## About Asimov ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Asimov builds an integrated platform of cells, genes, and software to program living systems, enabling the design and manufacture of advanced therapies. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, raised $175M in January 2023) - **Headquarters**: Boston, Massachusetts, USA (with a second office in Boulder, Colorado) - **Founded**: 2017 - **Founders**: Alec Nielsen (CEO), Chris Voigt, Doug Densmore, Raja Srinivas ## Core Business - **Primary industry/industries**: Synthetic biology, biotechnology, therapeutics manufacturing - **Target customers**: B2B – biotech startups, mid-size biotechs, and large pharmaceutical companies (partnered with over 25 companies) - **Mission or purpose statement**: “To radically advance humanity’s ability to design living systems, enabling biological technologies with outsized societal benefit.” ## Products & Services - **Design Software**: Cloud-based CAD platform to design, simulate, and optimize genetic systems in different cell types. - **Genetic Parts Library**: Over 1,000 experimentally validated genetic parts (transposases, expression vectors, inducible systems, tissue-specific promoters, etc.). - **Host Cell Lines**: Engineered, highly characterized GMP host cells for therapeutic production (CHO, HEK293, etc.) with regulatory documentation. - **LV Edge**: Stable cell lines and software tools for lentiviral titers up to 1E9 TU/mL. - **AAV Edge**: End-to-end payload design and production achieving titers up to 6E15 vg/L. - **RNA Edge**: Sequence design through wet-lab validation in weeks. - **CHO Edge**: Genetic tools and data-driven models delivering titers of 8–12 g/L across modalities. - **Platform Transfer & Full Service**: Two engagement models – customers use the platform in-house, or Asimov performs cell line development and process development at its Boston lab. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed - **Key Metric**: Total funding of $205M; annual revenue of ~$4.0M (LinkedIn estimate) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz (seed lead), Horizons Ventures (Series A lead), CPP Investments (Series B lead), DARPA (research support). Partners include 25+ biotechs and pharma companies. - **Growth Signals**: 95 employees (25.8% YoY growth); raised $200M in Series B (Jan 2023); launched AI-driven 4th generation CHO Edge System with increased titer guarantee; expanding into RNA and cell therapy tools. ## Competitive Advantages - Only company offering an end-to-end platform that integrates mammalian synthetic biology, computer-aided design, and machine learning. - Proprietary library of 1,000+ well-characterized genetic parts and GMP-banked host cells. - “We use our own platform every day” – internal R&D teams validate improvements before releasing to customers. - Strong regulatory support (GMP documentation for host cells) that de-risks therapeutic development. ## Strategic Focus - Deepen AI/ML integration into genetic design and cell line development. - Expand platform to cover more therapeutic modalities (cell therapy, RNA therapy, biologics). - Scale partnerships with large pharma while continuing to support early-stage biotechs. - Build out the “first CAD platform for biology” to transition genetic engineering into a fully-fledged engineering discipline. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: “A culture of recombination” – interdisciplinary team of biologists, engineers, and ML scientists. Values include mission first, urgency, continuous learning, thoughtful communication, and avoiding local optima. - **Work model**: Hybrid – employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work (Cambridge, MA and Boulder, CO). - **Perks & growth**: Built In profile highlights career growth, compensation & benefits, work-life balance, and stability. The company is actively hiring across roles (Staff Software Engineer, Principal Scientist, Sr. Scientist, Associate Director). - **Impact**: Work at the cutting edge of synthetic biology, directly contributing to the design and manufacture of life-saving therapies. ## Sources 1. [asimov.com](https://www.asimov.com/) 2. [asimov.com/about](https://www.asimov.com/about) 3. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/asimov) 4. [Built In](https://builtin.com/company/asimov) 5. 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