Principal Software Engineer / Architect – Microscopy Data Management & Cloud Platform

Role summary

We are looking for a hands-on Principal Software Engineer / Architect to lead the architecture and implementation of a distributed scientific data platform for microscopy and life-science applications. The platform must support microscopy image data, metadata, search, transformation, storage, transfer and analysis workflows across instruments, user PCs, on-premise deployments and AWS cloud environments. This role requires deep expertise in database-centric system design, scientific data modeling, high-performance data processing and scalable multi-user distributed systems.

You will

• Lead the architecture and technical design of a distributed data management platform for microscopy and scientific imaging workflows.
• Define and evolve a unified data model for datasets, metadata, derived data and analysis outputs across multiple instruments and products.
• Design scalable storage, indexing, search, caching and data-transfer mechanisms for large scientific datasets in hybrid edge/on-prem/cloud environments.
• Design and implement database-centric services, APIs and backend components for secure and high-performance multi-user access.
• Drive the migration of legacy product-specific data-management functionality into reusable platform services.
• Collaborate with image analysis, web UI, instrument software and domain experts to define robust interfaces and end-to-end workflows.
• Contribute to engineering standards, CI/CD, observability, reliability and secure software delivery for cloud-based and instrument-hosted systems.
• Provide technical leadership through architecture decisions, hands-on implementation, design reviews, mentoring and cross-team alignment.

Must have

• MS in STEM or equivalent practical experience.
• 10+ years in software engineering, including design of complex distributed backend or data platforms.
• Strong experience with scientific or imaging data systems, ideally microscopy, digital imaging or laboratory software.
• Deep expertise in database design, schema evolution, query optimization, transactions, indexing, data security and data lifecycle management.
• Strong experience with SQL and at least one of: document, key-value, graph or vector databases.
• Strong experience designing search solutions for complex metadata and dataset discovery.
• Proven experience with AWS-based backend systems, storage, compute and scalable service design.
• Strong programming skills in Python plus one of C# or Java.
• Experience building secure multi-user systems with authentication, authorization and auditability.
• Strong architectural thinking, system decomposition and performance optimization skills.

Strong plus

• Experience with microscopy image metadata, OME concepts, image file formats, tiled or multiresolution image handling or scientific imaging pipelines.
• Experience with S3-compatible object storage, hybrid deployments and on-prem/cloud synchronization.
• Experience with caching, asynchronous workflows, data pipelines and event-driven architectures.
• Experience with regulated or quality-driven environments.
• Experience with access control integration, Keycloak, LDAP/AD or customer-specific identity systems.

Nice to have

• C++/Bash/PowerShell
• Docker/Kubernetes/Terraform
• Vector search or AI/ML data retrieval patterns
• Experience with life-science ontologies and scientific data standards