Director, Software Engineering

Element Biosciences, San Diego - Headquarters

The role

We're hiring a Director of Software Engineering to lead a team of developers building the software that powers our multi-omic instruments and platforms. Your team's surface area spans frontend, backend, cloud services, instrument software, CLI/API, and agentic tooling -- across customer-facing products and internal tools that keep the rest of the organization moving fast. This is a hands-on Director role. You'll spend roughly 60% of your time as an IC -- writing production-grade code, driving architecture, and running design reviews -- and 40% managing, mentoring, and growing your team.

What you will do

Lead, mentor, and grow a team of software developers spanning frontend, backend, cloud, and instrument software
Set technical direction, define priorities, and align team execution with company goals and product roadmaps
Own hiring, 1:1s, performance reviews, career development, and resourcing decisions for the team
Foster a culture of ownership, quality, collaboration, and continuous improvement
Manage team budget, capacity planning, and cross-team dependencies; partner with peer leaders across Informatics, AI, Product, Hardware, and Chemistry
Champion and roll out agentic SDLC practices -- Cursor, Claude, and AI-driven workflows -- across your team, into the broader software org, and help shape best practices for the larger company
Contribute to overall software processes, practices, training, and quality/security assurances for the software department
Contribute hands-on across the stack: frontend (React), backend (Go), cloud services (AWS), workflow orchestration (Temporal), instrument software (Ubuntu), and CLI/API, and agentic tooling
Drive architecture and design for customer-facing products and internal tooling; run design reviews and set the bar for production-grade code, testing, and observability
Own end-to-end delivery for one or more product areas -- from requirements through deployment and sustaining
Partner with product owners, chemistry, hardware, and adjacent software teams to translate multi-omic workflows into scalable, performant software
Debug hard cross-system issues, root-cause complex bugs, and jump in on customer-blocking problems when needed
Prototype quickly with AI tools to validate ideas, pressure-test specs, and de-risk approaches before they reach the team
Advocate for the engineering systems, tools, and workflows that accelerate long-term product velocity
Support both research-market and regulated software development within your team's scope
Own or oversee design controls, verification and validation documentation, risk analysis, and traceability for regulated products (IEC 62304, ISO 13485, IVDR, FDA 21 CFR Part 820)
Partner with regulatory affairs and QMS teams to support audits, inspections, and submissions

What you need

Education and Experience

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Bioengineering, or related field (advanced degree preferred)
10+ years of software engineering experience, with 3+ years directly managing engineering teams
Track record shipping production-grade software across the full stack -- frontend, backend, cloud services, and workflow orchestration
Hands-on fluency with our stack or close equivalents: Go, React, MongoDB, Redis, gRPC, GraphQL, Temporal, Ubuntu, AWS
Daily fluency with AI coding assistants (Cursor, Claude, or similar) and demonstrated experience introducing or scaling agentic SDLC workflows within a team
Experience shipping software that spans instrumentation, cloud SaaS, and CLI/API tooling
Strong analytical, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills; comfortable presenting to executives, customers, and technical stakeholders
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment while balancing IC contribution and team leadership
Experience with life sciences, multi-omic, DNA sequencing, or scientific instrumentation software
Experience with regulated software workflows -- IEC 62304, ISO 13485, IVDR, or FDA 21 CFR Part 820 -- including design controls, traceability, and V&V documentation for SaMD or instrument software
Experience shipping ML/AI features -- traditional ML pipelines and/or LLM/agent-based features (RAG, tool use, evals)
Cross-organizational or inter-company collaboration experience

Physical Requirements

Must be flexible in working hours as this position may require customer support during non-regular business hours

Location

San Diego – on-site

Travel

List amount of travel required or anticipated, if any.

Job Type

Full-time, Part-time, Exempt/Non-exempt

Base Compensation Pay Range

$180,000 - $254,000

In addition to base compensation noted above, you will be eligible for stock options, discretionary annual bonus, no cost health insurance plans, 401k with company match, and flexible paid time off.

Please note: Base compensation will depend on multiple factors, including geographic location, qualifications, and experience.

Director, Software Engineering

The role

Director, Software Engineering

The role

What you will do

What you need

Education and Experience

Physical Requirements

Location

Travel

Job Type

Base Compensation Pay Range

About Element Biosciences

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