Location: Lemont, IL
Cap-Exempt H-1B Position — No lottery required
Argonne National Laboratory's Rapid Prototyping Lab (RPL), part of the Data Science and Learning division, is seeking a Software Engineer to serve as a technical lead for the Modular Autonomous Discovery for Science (MADSci) framework — an open-source, Python-based platform that orchestrates self-driving laboratories across materials science, chemistry, and the biosciences. MADSci is the software backbone of Argonne's Autonomous Discovery initiative. It integrates instruments, robots, AI/ML decision agents, and data pipelines into reproducible, closed-loop scientific experiments at scales and speeds that exceed traditional human-led methods. The framework is currently deployed in projects ranging from energy-storage materials and antimicrobial discovery to isotope production for medical applications, and is used by collaborators across DOE laboratories, universities, and industry partners. The successful candidate will take primary technical responsibility for the continued development, release, and operational support of MADSci. This includes shaping the architecture, mentoring contributors, supporting downstream lab deployments, and partnering with scientists, instrument engineers, and AI researchers to translate experimental requirements into production-quality software. Key responsibilities include: - Lead day-to-day development of the MADSci framework: design and implement new features, triage and resolve bugs, review pull requests, and shepherd releases through the project's CI/CD pipeline. - Own the architecture of a Python microservices system spanning workflow orchestration, resource and inventory tracking, distributed event logging, experiment management, and device integration. - Collaborate with experimental scientists and robotics engineers to onboard new instruments, design experiment workflows, and translate scientific goals into robust software abstractions. - Maintain and grow the contributor community, including external collaborators at other DOE