Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe’s growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our bioengineers make use of an in-house automated foundry for designing and building new organisms.
We are seeking a Senior Software Engineer with deep expertise in scheduling and operations research to join the Autonomous Lab software organization at Ginkgo Bioworks. This position is specific to the Orchestrator team. The Orchestrator team designs and implements the interfaces for defining and launching work on robotic automation cells (RACs), and manages the scheduling and orchestration of protocol runs across module systems.
The ideal candidate is an experienced software engineer who has built and shipped production scheduling systems, with a working command of operations research, optimization, and constraint programming. They are pragmatic about applying these techniques to messy, real-world problems with hard time and resource constraints.
To learn more about automation engineering at Ginkgo, take a look at our website
Applications are due Friday July 10, 2026. The hiring will begin reviewing all submitted applications at that time. We aim to give all applicants a response by Friday July 17, 2026.
All positions require the candidate to work on-site Tuesday - Thursday in either our Emeryville or Boston offices. Ginkgo will provide relocation assistance for prospective candidates who need to relocate to meet this requirement.
Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of H-1B visas at this time.
Scheduler & Optimization Development
Performance, Simulation & Validation
Cross-Team Collaboration
We do not expect that any one candidate will have all of the following capabilities - each is independently a preferred or "nice-to-have" capability.
The base salary range for this role is $134,300.00 - $189,900.00. Actual pay within this range will depend on a candidate's skills, expertise, and experience. We also offer company stock awards, a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental & vision coverage, health spending accounts, voluntary benefits, leave of absence policies, 401(k) program with employer contribution, 8 paid holidays in addition to a full-week winter shutdown and unlimited Paid Time Off policy.
Ginkgo has implemented a return to office policy effective October 1, 2025 with required in-office days 3x per week on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Some teams may require to be onsite 4-5 days per week and this will be discussed as part of the interview process. This policy applies to all employees who live within 50 miles of Ginkgo’s offices in Boston, MA, Emeryville, CA and West Sacramento, CA.
At Ginkgo, we use biology to grow the future. Companies across industries leverage our platform to design, develop, and optimize products for a breadth of commercial applications. We help our partners grow key ingredients for vaccines, crops that rely less on fossil fuel-based fertilizers, plant-based meat that tastes like the real thing, materials for the next generation of circular fashion, and so much more. We know our unique experiences, ideas, and perspectives are essential to our success and enable us to make biology easier to engineer and ensure equitable distribution of the benefits of our platform. As such, we seek to to grow an inclusive culture and diverse workforce. Let's make biology easier to engineer and join our team.
