Senior Software Engineer

Lydian • Boston, MA

12d • $130,000 - $180,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Lydian is hiring a Senior Software Engineer to build and own software and data systems supporting and connecting technology development and commercial efforts. The role brings together data from materials development, chemical reactors, manufacturing, quality control, and technoeconomic modeling in a shared platform to accelerate development as the company scales toward commercial production.

The engineer will work directly with chemists, materials scientists, and process and mechanical engineers to turn their needs into dependable software tools. In a lean startup without dedicated IT or database administration, this person will own systems end to end, from architecture and implementation through deployment and ongoing operation. Initial work includes creating data storage for R&D and manufacturing, integrating manufacturing equipment and supplier data, supporting ERP selection, and enabling data analysis and integration of laboratory test-stand data. The role is onsite in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

Requirements

• Degree in computer science, software engineering, or a related science or engineering field, or equivalent professional software experience.
• At least 5 years of professional software engineering experience, including independently scoping, prioritizing, building, deploying, and supporting production systems.
• Strong Python and SQL skills, including experience building maintainable applications or services and designing relational schemas such as PostgreSQL or similar.
• Sound software engineering practices, including Git, automated testing, code review, and documentation that enables others to maintain the work.
• Hands-on experience analyzing and visualizing data in Python, such as with pandas, NumPy, and plotting or dashboard libraries.
• Strong communication skills with non-software colleagues, including the ability to learn a new technical domain, translate loosely defined needs into working tools, and help users adopt them.
• Strong experience using AI-assisted development tools, with accountability for the correctness, security, testing, and maintainability of the resulting code.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with time-series or sensor data from physical systems, such as test and telemetry, process data, or lab instruments.
• Experience in hardware, manufacturing, or laboratory and scientific R&D settings, such as traceability, QC, LIMS, or MES.
• Docker, Linux administration, and basic networking experience.
• Startup or small-team experience owning infrastructure end to end.
• Experience with data-acquisition or industrial systems such as DAQFactory, Ignition, LabVIEW, or LabJack; or protocols such as Modbus or OPC UA.
• Statistical analysis of experimental data, including regression, design of experiments, or statistical process control.
• Experience with Nominal, the Notion API, or JMP.
• Background in chemistry, chemical, materials, or mechanical engineering, or physics.
• Desire to establish software engineering culture and mentor future team members as the company scales.

Responsibilities

• Own software and data systems, including databases, services, and data-entry tools that trace materials, parts, and assemblies through manufacturing and QC to reactor test results, integrating with tools such as Nominal and Notion.
• Build reliable pipelines and instrument integrations to bring test-equipment and manually entered data into a central database, with validation for clean, consistent data that is easy to visualize and query.
• Build dashboards and support scientists and engineers in implementing automated run summaries and performance metrics.
• Gather requirements from scientists and engineers, maintain a prioritized roadmap, make build-versus-buy decisions, train users, gather feedback, and iterate on tools and workflows.
• Establish version control, code review, testing, and documentation practices for team scripts and tools, including AI-assisted code; coach teammates and review, integrate, and maintain tools built across the company.
• Deploy, monitor, troubleshoot, and maintain the applications, databases, and infrastructure supporting these systems.
• Support ERP selection as the company scales.

Benefits

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience.
• Meaningful equity compensation.
• Generous PTO.
• 100% of employee healthcare, vision, and dental premiums covered; 80% coverage for dependents.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Challenging, collaborative, meaningful work and an important voice in company development.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed