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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Founding Software Engineer - **Company:** Substrate Bio - **Location:** London, UK - **Experience:** Expert - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Artificial Intelligence, Automata Theory, Code Review, Customer Data Management, Language Integrated Query, Python (Programming Language), Laboratory Information Management Systems, Scientific Computating, Software Engineering, Workflow Management Systems, Large Language Models, Backend, Production Code, Api Design - **Published:** May 22, 2026 - **Apply:** https://uk.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=08a154f8c25f3e60 ## About the Role Do you have experience in Python?, You are an experienced software engineer who has shipped production systems at depth. You have led a small team or are ready to. You write good code at speed, you have strong opinions about architecture, and you have learned (often the hard way) when to defer those opinions. You have worked at the boundary where software meets physical reality (lab automation, robotics, manufacturing, logistics, scientific instruments, energy) and you understand that the interesting failure modes live there. You are excited by the prospect of writing the first lines of code for a system that will run a real lab. You are pragmatic about agentic systems and foundation models; you have used them in production rather than read about them in posts. You want a player coach role specifically. You enjoy interviewing, hiring, mentoring, and building culture, and you do not want to be only an individual contributor or only a manager. You care deeply about building a world class team. You are comfortable with early stage ambiguity, with making decisions on partial information, and with revisiting them when better information arrives., * Five or more years of professional software engineering experience, with at least one leading or co-leading a small team. * Production experience with backend systems, distributed services, and either workflow orchestration or scheduling systems. * Strong working comfort with at least Python, and willingness to learn the necessary tools. * Track record of designing APIs that other engineers have actually used. * Direct experience of the software-to-hardware boundary, in lab automation, robotics, manufacturing, or an analogous domain., * Experience of an early-stage founding-engineer role at a venture-backed company. * Familiarity with foundation model APIs, agentic patterns, and the practical realities of putting them in production. * Background in or near scientific computing, bioinformatics, or LIMS / ELN systems. ## Description You will own the operational software product end to end. The product has five surfaces. The loop orchestrator is the heart of it: two agentic translation layers that convert scientific intent (model output, natural language, or structured input) into executable, automated workflows, and convert workflow outputs and run metadata back into destination-specific formats for delivery to foundation models, LIMS, customer data lakes, and ELNs. Resource management will track consumables, reagents, and labware, and maintain a live representation of the physical lab so that physical inputs can be mapped onto workflow outputs. The customer interface is API-first with a web front end. The workflow orchestrator sits above Automata's LINQ scheduler and manages capacity allocation across customers, verticals, and device groups. The pricing and forecast engine calculates predicted and actual platform inputs and translates them into customer cost. You will write the first production code, set the architecture, set the engineering culture, and grow the team. You will have the opportunity to build a team and help set the culture within the company. You will work closely with Alexey on the boundary between our operational software and our intelligence software (the AI Scientist and AI Assays products), and with the founding biology team on the orchestrator behaviour on the lab side., * Land in the team. Lock the architecture for the orchestrator and the customer interface. Decide the build vs buy boundary against LINQ. * Ship the first end to end thin slice: a simple workflow submitted via the customer API, executable on a workcell, with run metadata captured and returned. * Set the engineering culture: code review, deployment, on call, observability. Pick the languages, frameworks, and tooling we will live with. PHASE 1: SEP TO DEC 2026 * Stand up the resource management and digital twin services. Wire them into the protein engineering workflows being onboarded by the founding biology team. * Hire the first software engineer alongside you. Define the role, run the process, close the offer. * Ship the first version of the pricing and forecast engine. Connect it to the customer interface so that customers see predicted cost before they submit., You will report to Oli Hoy, co-founder, who leads our autonomous lab buildout and is also responsible for the broader operations of the company. You will work most closely with Alexey Morgunov on the intelligence software boundary, and with the founding biology team on the orchestrator behaviour at the lab side. ## Related Videos - [API Design - Getting Started](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/33-api-design-getting-started) - [Developing the Backend with Stefan Lingler, CTO at Shpock](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100360-developing-the-backend-with-stefan-lingler-cto-at-shpock) - [Are Code Reviews Worth It? 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