Senior Software Engineer – Equipment Controls

Location: Wilmington, MA
Type of Role: Contract to Hire (6-month contract, then conversion)

Overview

Looking for a talented and self-motivated Senior Software Engineer to develop, maintain, troubleshoot, and extend machine-control software for novel electro-mechanical additive manufacturing systems. The ideal candidate has strong C++ and C# experience, is comfortable working close to hardware, and can debug complex real-time equipment behavior from software, controls, electrical, process, and operator-facing symptoms.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, implement, maintain, and troubleshoot real-time C++ machine-control software for complex control systems, including gas flow control, motion systems, timing and communication systems.
• Develop and maintain C#/.NET HMI, backend, configuration, setup-wizard, and diagnostics software for complex equipment operation.
• Integrate and debug industrial automation hardware including EtherCAT I/O, safety interfaces, PMAC/Delta Tau motion systems, PLC interactions, sensors, actuators, lasers, and related machine peripherals.
• Support machine bring-up, commissioning, production troubleshooting, and root-cause analysis using logs, database telemetry, diagnostics, simulator behavior, and direct machine testing.
• Work with controls, electrical, mechanical, process, optics, manufacturing, and field teams to turn machine behavior requirements into robust software and controls implementations.
• Improve fault handling, fail-safe behavior, operator messaging, configuration persistence, diagnostics, and recovery workflows for production equipment.
• Maintain and extend shared software libraries and deployment support for multiple machine projects.
• Document designs, handoff notes, test plans, commissioning procedures, and troubleshooting guidance for systems that must be maintained by a broader engineering team.
• Participate in code reviews, enforce practical testing discipline, and mentor less experienced engineers.

Required Experience & Skills

• BS degree in Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 7+ years of relevant professional experience developing software for industrial automation, equipment controls, embedded systems, real-time systems, robotics, motion systems, or similar hardware-integrated products.
• Object-oriented design and analysis (OOA/OOD) with demonstrated ability to translate ambiguous machine requirements into maintainable software designs.
• Strong professional experience with modern C++ in equipment, embedded, real-time, or other hardware-adjacent software environments.
• Strong professional experience with C#/.NET for HMI, tooling, configuration, diagnostics, or backend equipment software.
• Ability to independently debug complex software and machine behavior across C++, C#, real-time systems, industrial I/O, hardware interfaces, logs, and operator workflows.
• Working understanding of industrial automation concepts such as communication buses, sensors, actuators, motion, PLC/safety interaction, interlocks, fault handling, real-time constraints, and fail-safe behavior.
• Experience designing or maintaining GUI/HMI systems for complex control systems or production equipment.
• Comfort working directly with machines in a lab or factory environment, including bring-up, commissioning, issue reproduction, and validation testing.
• Experience with source control, issue tracking, code reviews, and practical test planning for software that interacts with hardware.
• Experience using AI tooling to effectively and safely assist in software development, such as Codex / Claude / Copilot.
• Strong analytical, written, and verbal communication skills; must be able to work effectively across software, controls, electrical, mechanical, process, and manufacturing teams.