Optical Hardware Engineer, Foundry

We are Arcadia Science an evolutionary biology company founded and led by scientists. Our mission is to turn natural innovations into real-world solutions by developing systematic and quantitative approaches to leveraging biology for therapeutics R&D. We share our research as openly as possible to accelerate discovery and make our work broadly useful.

The Optical Hardware Engineer will be part of the Foundry Arcadias division at the interface between R&D and commercial deployment. The goal of this division is to take scientifically validated tools and capabilities from the research team and productionize them for broader use. The Foundrys first focus is Raman spectroscopy. This role will report directly to the CEO.

You will start with an effort around optimizing and scaling AutoOpenRaman an open-source automated Raman spectrometer we developed for biological research. Now we want to professionalize it for expanded internal and external deployment by optimizing the instrument (e.g. increasing the signal-to-noise adding laser lines) and making the hardware production-ready designing and building user-friendly operating and analysis software and delivering a set-up intuitive enough for a typical life science researcher to use without significant training.

As the Optical Hardware Engineer you will help drive the hardware engineering side of the project end-to-end: optics enclosure design performance improvements and electronics integration. You will work closely with a software engineer assay developers and the scientists who will use the instrument every day. From there you will help define what external deployment looks like working with our partners who want to integrate these capabilities inside their own labs and companies.

• Lead the design of AutoOpenRaman into a compact integrated benchtop instrument

• Design and prototype an enclosure that achieves Class 1 laser safety and thats manufacturable at scale

• Consolidate the current electronics (stage controller shutter calibration light source laser) into a single integrated system

• Work with a software engineer to define the hardwaresoftware interface and ensure the instrument behaves predictably under automated control

• Define the bill of materials and assembly protocol for reproducible builds with an eye toward eventually scaling to 10- or 50-unit production runs

• Engage vendors fabrication shops and laser safety review as needed

Youll be well-suited for this role if you have:

• PhD or equivalent hands-on experience designing and building optical instruments (spectroscopy microscopy laser systems or similar)

• Familiarity with laser safety standards and experience designing enclosed laser systems

• CAD proficiency

• Experience with electronics integration at the level of specifying and wiring up stepper controllers microcontrollers or similar embedded systems

• Experience partnering with software engineers to co-develop instrument control GUIs and user workflows that enable intuitive reliable operation for scientific users

• Ability to communicate with biologists and understand what actually matters for a life science instrument and a wide range of users

• Experience taking optical hardware from prototype to a robust usable state with attention to the full user experience and future commercial scalability

• Interest and participation in open-source hardware and science

• Direct experience with Raman spectroscopy either instrument development or hands-on use

• Familiarity with µManager or similar microscopy control software

• Experience with design for manufacturability and transitioning from prototype to small-scale production

• Experience with relevant experimental workflows and sample preparation techniques