Python Job: Software Engineer

About us

Vow is a food company - a very different one. We’re creating real meat products from animal cells instead of the animal itself.

We’re bringing together cutting edge innovations in science, engineering, culinary and design to make sustainable food that’s both irresistible and available to billions of people worldwide.

Who we are looking for

We're seeking an experienced Software Engineer to join our rapidly growing startup. Remote and visa sponsorship options are available.

As a Software Engineer on our team, you'll enable and dramatically accelerate this future through software and data. You’ll become part of a major industrial revolution happening around the world today. You’ll write software to automate data capture and analysis, program scientific robots to turn difficult physical tasks in the lab into rapid, fully reproducible systems, and enable every team member at Vow to do massively leveraged creative work every day.

You have

• You have at least 4 years of software engineering experience shipping code in production tech stacks, including in mission-critical and large-scale systems.
• Formal degree qualifications are not required, but if you are self-taught, then you have evidence of commensurate industry experience and demonstrated a desire to master your craft.
• Experience in Linux server environments and AWS cloud environments
• You’re kind, curious, take pride in your work, and enjoy learning new things.
• You’re product and user obsessed. You constantly think about the perspectives of end-users and your impact on the mission even when it’s not asked of you. Your users feel heard when they provide feedback, or better yet, when you actively seek it out.
• You’re able to identify and make pragmatic tradeoffs that incorporate cost/benefit into every key decision, rather than aiming for perfection or chasing rabbit holes.
• You effectively communicate in clear language suitable for your audience, in both written and verbal communication.
• Willingness to enthusiastically tackle any part of the stack as needed for the successful shipping of an engineering project, including hardware, firmware, data engineering, and frontend, even if it means learning a new skill or being out of your comfort zone.

Bonus if you have

• Advanced knowledge of any of the following languages: JavaScript, TypeScript, Python or SQL
• Previous hardware and electronics experience, in a personal or professional setting
• Previous lab experience, ideally in the field of biology
• Previous relevant experience in automation & robotics
• A love of food, cooking or experience in a culinary setting

You will

• Architect, build and scale software as part of a technology stack that spans everything from biology to hardware to backend software to frontend apps.
• Work in a modern stack built on TypeScript, Python, PostgreSQL, and AWS.
• Manage and run the entire software development cycle, including customer interviews, problem definition, architecture, prototyping, testing, training, documentation, and driving key metrics. As you gain experience and earn the trust of team members and stakeholders alike, you’ll be entrusted to define the product and technology roadmap in your areas of expertise.
• Review code and work materials of your fellow engineers, and mentor more junior engineers.
• Meaningfully contribute improvements to our culture and organisational processes.
• Have significant freedom to identify and work on the most valuable problems you see.
• Learn about biology, hardware, design and culinary from our multidisciplinary team and leverage these balanced perspectives in your work.

What success looks like

In the first month, you’ll get to know your team and manager, work alongside scientists to understand their lab challenges, learn the core science of cultured meat, and delve into our tech stack to immediately ship impactful changes to our two key automation areas - data pipelines and robotic automation. You could be optimising an ML model that predicts cell proliferation, programming robotic liquid handling to automate away a tedious pipetting protocol, or solving a UI/UX pain point to make life delightful for a cultured meat scientist.

Over the next few months, you’ll establish and scale data pipelines that pull from a fleet of lab sensors and perform image processing and statistical analysis, program robotic plate handling systems for end-to-end automated cell line screening, or build modern React apps to allow scientists to design experiments to be run by high-throughput robots.

Vow, more than just a job.

Who we are and why join:

• We are building a diverse, mission-led dream team of “Vowzers.” Our mission is to make food products for everyone. To do that well we need a workforce that’s representative of the people we serve. We celebrate multiple approaches and points of view - so we’re building a culture to match. Be yourself and come as you are.
• Work on cutting-edge technology. We’re bringing together cutting-edge innovations in science, engineering, and food, to recreate the world’s most tantalising and unique culinary experiences. All without compromising on ethics or our planet along the way. Since our inception in 2019, we have held the title of being the first startup to cultivate meat from the cells of an undomesticated animal, and have served up our exotic meats ranging from kangaroo dumplings to alpaca sliders in tastings with world-renowned chefs.
• Work with and learn from the best. Our team includes some of the world’s top scientists, innovators, operators, and creatives with decades of industry experience. Despite our experiences though, we all strive to build, break, learn, and repeat. We see the impossible as temporary and strive to learn and support our company and fellow Vowzers' growth as much as possible.
• We’re fully funded and ready to go. We are a growing Aussie biotech start-up backed by Square Peg Capital, Blackbird Ventures, Grok Ventures and Tenacious Ventures.

Vow perks and benefits:

• Everyone is an owner. In addition to competitive base salaries, each and every ‘Vowzer’ owns equity in the company so we can all benefit from our hard work and future success.
• Generous paid parental leave. We offer 8 weeks of paid caregiver leave and an additional 8 weeks paid leave for the birth giver.
• Generous relocation budget & support. Support for interstate or overseas team members and their families (including pets!)
• Flexible working hours and location. We value work-life balance. While we’re mostly back in the office, you’re free to choose the best way for you to work.
• Unlimited Personal Leave. At Vow we recognise that sometimes you need time off to recuperate, look after your mental health, or simply deal with an emergency. We put unlimited personal leave in place to empower you to truly bring your best self to work every single day and you are always paid for days taken off as personal leave.
• Transparent culture. Active transparency to let you effectively contribute to every facet of the business.
• Heaps of tasty samples from our culinary centre. Our fantastic "food inventors" on the Vow team are always cooking up new product prototypes, and all Vowzers are given the opportunity to taste, give feedback, and learn from their culinary prowess
• Company wide professional development & coaching. A huge focus on career support and growth, with access to lots of learning and development opportunities through lunch and learn events, access to webinars and conferences, and networking with our investor and tech community.
• Company wide social events. Monthly birthday celebrations, "Bio Beers" happy hours, breakfast before our fortnightly companywide "All Hands”, annual end of year event and many more.
• An awesome converted warehouse office in Alexandria. Complete with a glass-walled lab, free snacks, a culinary centre and professional-grade coffee machine + premium coffee bean subscriptions available for all to use in the cafe, and a DIY workshop for all hands-on projects.
• Human and dog friendly office! An inclusive community and culture, in a welcoming office, complete with friendly “Vowzer” dogs!
• A variety of social clubs. We encourage all our Vowzers to build the culture with us and share what you love by creating social clubs across the business. From book clubs to hiking groups, we’re always looking for ways to learn and engage with our team.

You don’t have to have every listed requirement and skill to be a great fit - you may even teach us something about what we should be looking for! If you are passionate about this opportunity and think you have the skills to succeed, please apply! If not, but you know someone who might be interested, please share this post.