Whelix Senior Robotics Software Engineer Boston, MA · Full time Company website

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Whelix builds intelligent robots that automate wet lab work, starting with cell culture, for biotech and pharmaceutical research. By integrating AI agents with proprietary engineered robotics, our systems eliminate repetitive, error-prone workflows, freeing scientists to focus on discovery while increasing experimental throughput, reproducibility, and scientific impact.

Based in Boston, Whelix is shipping systems to pharmaceutical, biotech and academic labs today and actively scaling up production to serve more customers.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Robotics Software Engineer to own the software that runs on our robotic platforms, including the on-robot services that connect to the cloud, the ROS 2 system that coordinates motion, handling, liquid handling and imaging subsystems, motor and device drivers over CAN and EtherCAT, and the containers, system services and CI pipeline that deploy and maintain it. You will lead the move to a single, production-ready software platform that runs reliably over long-term operation, is easy to maintain, and scales across hardware generations, robots and customer labs.

This is a senior individual-contributor role reporting to the CTO. You will work with a robotics software engineer, a web-platform engineer, our mechanical and electrical engineers, and the scientists who use the machine. You will also be on site when a unit is installed.

What You Will Work On

• Build one software platform that supports multiple hardware generations through configuration and driver plugins, without separate code branches
• Engineer for high reliability: automatic recovery from device, bus and peripheral faults, with safety interlocks and motion boundary checks enforced on the machine
• Make robot behavior observable and maintainable, with a clear command model and a single source of truth for system configuration
• Bring vision-based verification into production so the robot confirms critical steps on its own
• Scale the hardware-in-the-loop deployment pipeline and fleet operations across many robots and customer labs, with smooth customer installations

Responsibilities

Robot Software

• Design, implement and maintain ROS 2 nodes, actions and drivers for gantry, flask handling, gripper, pipette and imaging subsystems in C++ and Python
• Own the hardware-profile and driver abstraction so new gantry generations are configuration and a driver plugin, not a fork
• Implement safety interlocks, E-stop handling and motion boundary checks on the machine, independent of the cloud

Deployment & Reliability

• Build and maintain the robot container image, systemd units, selftest gate and GitHub Actions hardware-in-the-loop deploy pipeline
• Make device, bus and camera recovery automatic; turn field failures into tests and gates
• Manage Git across nested repositories: submodule pins, long-lived branch merges, release tagging

Field & System-Level Work

• Provision, install and commission robots at customer sites, including network setup and device authentication, and support them afterward
• Collaborate with mechanical and electrical engineers on new hardware bring-up and with the web team on the robot-to-cloud contract
• Work with scientists to turn lab workflows into robust automated behavior; conduct root cause analysis and keep design docs current

Qualifications

• BS or MS in CS, ME, EE, Robotics or a related field, or equivalent experience
• 5+ years building software that controls physical machines, at least 2 on systems that shipped to customers
• Strong modern C++ and Python on Linux; hands-on ROS 2 (nodes, actions, services, launch, colcon)
• Fieldbus and motor-control experience: CAN or EtherCAT, servo drive configuration, homing, limits, fault recovery
• Docker and systemd in production; CI pipelines that deploy to real hardware
• Git fluency beyond the basics: submodules, rebases, merging long-lived branches without losing work
• A safety mindset: you have designed or commissioned an E-stop chain and know why interlocks live on the machine
• Experience installing or commissioning equipment at a customer site
• Willing to travel to customer labs, roughly one week per month at peak

Nice-to-Haves

• EtherCAT specifically (SOEM or IgH, CiA 402 drives)
• GitHub Actions self-hosted runners; Google Cloud (Artifact Registry, Cloud Run) or similar
• Computer vision in production: OpenCV, fiducials, or learned detectors on embedded GPUs
• Exposure to biotech, lab automation, liquid handling or wet-lab environments
• Experience carrying one product across more than one hardware generation

Perks & Growth Opportunities

• Competitive compensation (based on experience) and early-stage equity
• Ownership of the robot software, from motor control to the customer-facing system
• Immersive experience in startup building, with exposure to product, strategy, fundraising, and operations
• Work at the forefront of innovation, combining AI, robotics, and life sciences
• End-to-end involvement, from concept development to commercial deployment
• Cross-functional collaboration with engineers, scientists, and industry leaders
• Tap into Boston's robotics and deep-tech ecosystem, with founders, investors and industry experts at MassRobotics and The Engine