Scientific Software Engineer - Full Stack at Arcadia Science
Emeryville, CA
$160,000–$195,000from the description
Jul 12, 2026
Emeryville, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A full-stack software engineering role at an evolutionary biology research company, focused on building internal tools, data pipelines, and scientific web interfaces that support wet-lab and computational researchers. A significant portion of the work involves developing the software layer for an open-source automated Raman spectrometer — including a purpose-built UI for bench scientists and a pipeline from raw spectral data to interpretable results. Suits an engineer with strong product instincts, Python and TypeScript proficiency, and genuine interest in working directly alongside scientists.
Senior level · San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 1,150 people in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 600–1,500
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $190,744 (middle half $167,095–$224,501). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
The role is explicitly onsite at Arcadia's Emeryville, CA headquarters — remote work is not offered.
No minimum years of experience are stated; seniority is assessed from scope: full product ownership from scratch, agentic AI architecture decisions, and direct scientist collaboration point to Senior.
The JD names no specific frontend framework; React/Angular/Vue are inferred as the most common modern web technology substitutes for the TypeScript frontend requirement.
AI literacy and agentic workflow experience (LLMs, agents, AI-assisted development) are framed with firm gating language ('Deep AI literacy', 'Demonstrated experience building with AI') in the requirements section, so they are treated as hard gates.
Scientific instrument software experience, biology/bioinformatics background, and open-source contributions appear under 'Nice to have' and are marked preferred accordingly.
Compensation is stated as $160,000–$195,000/year plus benefits and equity, depending on experience.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): open-source scientific software.
Read the full posting
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