Sr​/Software Engineer, Imaging

The Opportunity

insitro is an ML-driven biotech company tackling the grand challenge of drug discovery. We are transforming the pace and success of drug discovery by uniting biology, highly automated laboratory science, and machine learning.

Our teams are responsible for generating rich, large-scale datasets—from high-content cellular microscopy and functional assays to single-cell genomics—and translating them into actionable, machine-learned insights for target identification and drug development. We are a collaborative group of platform engineers and scientists committed to building reliable, state-of-the-art systems to enable discovery at unprecedented scale.

We are seeking an experienced Senior Software Engineer to join our Imaging Software Team. This role is a unique opportunity to define and expand our Computer Vision and ML infrastructure across the full imaging data lineage, from on-microscope acquisition to high-throughput ML pipelines.

You will be responsible for building platform features that make novel imaging modalities and ML-derived phenotypes integral to our discovery workflows. Your work directly bridges experimental science and modern machine learning, transforming cutting‑edge research prototypes into validated screening workflows that operate robustly at laboratory automation scale.

This position offers a clear path to shaping the future of drug discovery by setting the technical direction for how imaging, automation, and machine learning converge. This role will report to the Senior Manager, Imaging Software and will be hybrid with the expectation of being onsite 3 days a week
.

• Platform Enablement: Partner with lab and ML scientists to design, develop, and scale platform capabilities required to design, run, and interpret ML‑powered high‑content screens.

• Production Hardening: Scale and harden complex image processing and ML workflows, taking them from research prototype to reliable, routine use.

• User Tooling: Build and evolve robust tools and interactive interfaces for data exploration, quality assessment, and visualization to help scientists iterate quickly on experimental data.

• Collaboration: Collaborate closely with lab scientists, ML scientists, and microscopy teams to translate complex experimental needs into clear, actionable technical plans and high‑quality, shipped software.

• Data Integrity: Set and uphold best‑in‑class practices for data integrity, lineage, reproducibility, and observability across the entire imaging data lifecycle.

We are looking for a highly motivated and collaborative engineer who is passionate about enabling scientific breakthroughs through robust platform development.

• Senior
  
  Experience:
  
  You bring 6+ years of professional experience building and operating production‑grade software and high‑throughput data pipelines, primarily using Python.

• Architectural Leadership: You have a proven ability to own complex, end‑to‑end projects, making thoughtful architectural trade‑offs, and delivering solutions incrementally with a focus on long‑term maintainability.

• Cross‑Functional Partnership: You thrive in cross‑functional settings and excel at translating abstract research and experimental needs into practical, scalable software systems.

• Mentorship & Documentation: You enjoy sharing knowledge, mentoring others, and are capable of writing clear, exemplary technical specifications and documentation.

• ML Platform Focus (Highly Valued): Direct experience designing, building, and deploying machine learning pipelines, visualizations, and QC processes for large‑scale imaging or similar high‑dimensional datasets.

• Biotech Context (A Plus): Prior experience working with large biological datasets and/or high‑content imaging is beneficial.

• Relevant Technologies: Familiarity with our core Python‑first ML stack, distributed compute technologies (e.g., PyTorch/Lightning, Ray, Kubernetes), and workflow orchestration tools (e.g., Argo, Airflow, or redun).

Our target starting salary for successful US‑based applicants for this role is $185,000 - $235,000. To determine starting pay, we consider multiple job‑related factors…