--

Founding Software Engineer — Accelerate and elevate our software development work. You'll be working ~50/50 between improving existing software (PLC programming copilot, web app, LLM agent) and building new features and products from scratch. Exceptional full stack software development skills are required, preferably with strong Typescript/React/Node experience. Experience with manufacturing/controls is not required but would be a plus.

$125,000 - $175,000 + equity

https://app.dover.com/jobs/getnexus

--

I'm Jonas, lead architect at Nexus Intelligence. We’re a software startup backed by a16z that’s building industrial automation systems for companies at the forefront of the US manufacturing renaissance. Our initial product is an agent-based platform for developing & operating legacy control systems, a set of platforms critical to automotive, food, energy, and other industrial sectors. Our vision is to bring AI-enabled workflows, development tools, languages, and runtimes into the manufacturing ecosystem - ultimately becoming the platform on which all modern industrial automation processes are built and deployed.

The team currently consists of Chris (CEO and founder, previously at Tesla, Stanford CS & MBA) and myself (automated biotech labs at Zymergen and Counsyl, dev tools at AWS, Cornell PhD). The first version of our product is in use by customers. You'd join us for the exciting and fast-paced 0 → 1 phase of company building. You’ll need to strongly believe in our mission, welcome the challenge of ambiguity, and iterate fast.

If this particular role doesn't quite fit your interests, we also have a General Application form on the same careers page. Email: jonas@getnexus.ai

The equivalent page for Germany where BioNTech distributes the same vaccine: https://www.comirnatyeducation.de/resources.html

While I do appreciate how difficult it is to distribute the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at -70 C, I am still puzzled by how deep into the distribution this temperature gets maintained. As far as I know, the spec is that the vaccine can be stored (and transported) at regular fridge temperatures for up to 5 days. It seems like everyone (in the US anyway) is focused on maintaining -70C all the way to the point of use. What about the alternative of thawing it at some distribution center and focusing efforts on getting it into a person within five days after that?

This NPR All Things Considered clip made me wonder if dry ice might be more complicated than I thought: https://www.npr.org/2020/12/24/950102003/does-u-s-have-enoug... Note how the interviewee's business is located in Miami but the dry ice comes from Georgia. Surely a populous state like Florida has local dry ice production?

Also, fun fact: "[Fearing a dry ice shortage,] the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association sent a letter to state and federal officials asking that 350,000 pounds of dry ice a week be set aside." Source: https://www.cbs58.com/news/cheese-industry-threatened-by-cov...

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25731984

Points: 5

# Comments: 0

Zymergen uses biology as a source of new chemical building blocks that enable the development of novel products and materials. We have many open positions across engineering, science, and all other functions listed on our website: https://www.zymergen.com/careers/

My team is currently looking for a Senior Software Engineer. We write the software that translates experiments designed by our scientists into actions performed by robots and automated laboratory equipment. Combined with the work done by our colleagues who are geneticists, data scientists, research associates, and many other disciplines, our work leads to new chemicals with properties unlike anything that can be derived from petroleum.

Our tech stack is different from what you'd normally see in a factory or biotech laboratory. We call this role “Software Engineer” and not “Automation Engineer” on purpose: Our codebase currently contains REST APIs served by Django apps, Vue.js for user interfaces (and simple Django forms with sprinkles of jQuery for others), Python’s asyncio in worker processes, and a collection of device drivers (also written in Python). Our infrastructure includes Kubernetes, Puppet-managed EC2 nodes, Kafka, MySQL, as well as a few cherry-picked components you’d find in a traditional process control system (e.g. Windows machines, Programmable Logic Controllers). No prior experience with robotics or automation is required, we're happy to teach you about these things.

One specific area our team is trying to get better at is frontend development and we hope that you can play a role in that. Be prepared to become our resident frontend expert and to spend 50% or more of your time designing and implementing user interfaces. All our users are internal to Zymergen: They include scientists who need to tell the robots what to work on, support engineers who troubleshoot misbehaving robots, and manufacturing engineers who rely on utilization data from our dashboards.

The full job description is here: https://www.zymergen.com/positions/?gh_jid=1754529 Email me at jonas@zymergen.com about this job or to chat about software for factories!

I don't have a counter-example for your very specific statement, but these are close:

* The car rental company "Rent a Wreck" in San Francisco drives between 5 and 20 of their camper vehicles off the lot and parks them in public parking spaces every morning around 7am and brings them back in in the evening. Reported to 311, "not enforceable".

* The Enterprise car rental branch at the Amtrak station in Emeryville, CA, routinely blocks a bike lane and public parking spots with rental vehicles. They also perform vehicle inspections and handovers there. No outrage, in fact Emeryville doesn't enforce parking in bike lanes or at red curbs, period.

* "Global Gourmet Catering" in San Francisco backs rental trucks into their loading bay such that the entire sidewalk, the entire bike lane, and up to half a traffic lane is blocked approximately every second day. In the evenings the same trucks are parked in public diagonal parking spots sized for passenger vehicles across the street, blocking the side walk and bike lane in the other direction. Reported to 311, forwarded to parking enforcement, won't enforce because blocked sidewalks and blocked bike lanes are handled by different people, and this involves both.

* "Enclosures International Corporation" in San Francisco basically runs a fulfillment operation with frequent forklift traffic on a public sidewalk and the bike lane. Super dangerous actually, because it forces cyclists to cross defunct train tracks in the traffic lane at a sharp angle. When the fork lifts aren't there, the Audi Q7 of one of their employees still blocks the sidewalk. Reported to 311, you can guess the outcome.

I asked @sf311 on Twitter why these things don't get enforced, but parking scooters on sidewalks does [0]. The answer:

> These scooters do not have a license plate. So it does not fall under SFMTA DPT.

> DPW BSM permits use of and enforces ordinances regarding public areas, as pertains to blocking items that don't have a license.

[0]: https://twitter.com/jonemo/status/985989669895553024

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15249936

Points: 4

# Comments: 0

[1] https://a9.com/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A9.com

However, this was later rejected by Bosch who claim that writing additional code is required by the car manufacturer to get the emissions test detection feature [2].

[1] http://blog.caranddriver.com/report-bosch-warned-vw-about-di... [2] http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/07/volkswagen-emissio...

Full Time, INTERNS, VISA, ONSITE

I'm Automation Engineer at Counsyl, building software and hardware that runs the robots in our automated genomics diagnostic lab. My team is currently looking for a Senior Software Engineer with experience in factory automation or logistics, and an Instrumentation and Controls Engineer.

* Sr Software Engineer (Automation): https://www.counsyl.com/careers/sr-software-engineer-automat...

* Instrumentation & Controls Engineer: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/instrumentation-and-controls...

Email me at jonas@counsyl.com if that looks like you and automating a laboratory sounds interesting to you. Other software teams at the company have open positions covering everything from frontend to devops, see below.

====== About Counsyl ======

Counsyl is a health technology company that offers DNA screening for diseases that can impact men, women and their children. We’ve revolutionized the lab and created a one of a kind platform that gives people access to critical health information at key junctures in their lives. Software, automation (robots!), and design are at the heart of Counsyl’s mission and drive our innovative approach to health technology products, platforms, and operations. We are a team of builders: our custom-built infrastructure and products run on an open-source stack of tools, such as Python, Django, Postgres, Puppet, React, and SASS. Our engineers work on topics ranging from bioinformatics and laboratory automation to EMR integration and medical billing.

====== Open Positions ======

* Computational Biologist: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/computational-biologist/

* Frontend Engineer: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/frontend-engineer/

* Product Designer: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/product-designer/

* Research Data Engineer: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/research-data-engineer/

* Software Engineer: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/software-engineer/

* Software Engineering Manager: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/software-engineering-manager...

* Systems Engineer: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/systems-engineer/

The full list of open positions are on www.counsyl.com/careers.

====== Recent Media Coverage ======

* MIT Technology Review’s 50 Smartest Companies 2015: http://www.technologyreview.com/lists/companies/2015/

* Techcrunch TV: http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/10/counsyl-automates-genetic-t...

* Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/3041662/most-innovative-companies...

Full Time, INTERNS, VISA, ONSITE

Counsyl is a health technology company that offers DNA screening for diseases that can impact men, women and their children. We’ve revolutionized the lab and created a one of a kind platform that gives people access to critical health information at key junctures in their lives. Software, automation, and design are at the heart of Counsyl’s mission and drive our innovative approach to health technology products, platforms, and operations. We are a team of builders: our custom-built infrastructure and products run on an open-source stack of tools, such as Python, Django, Postgres, Puppet, React, and SASS.

Our engineers work on topics ranging from bioinformatics and laboratory automation to EMR integration and medical billing. Positions we are currently hiring for include

* Software Engineer: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/software-engineer/

* Software Engineering Manager: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/software-engineering-manager...

* Systems Administrator: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/systems-administrator/

* Systems Engineer: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/systems-engineer/

* Computational Biologist: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/computational-biologist/

* Frontend Engineer: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/frontend-engineer/

* Product Designer: https://www.counsyl.com/careers/product-designer/

* Sr Software Engineer (Automation): https://www.counsyl.com/careers/sr-software-engineer-automat...

The full list of open positions are on www.counsyl.com/careers. Here's some recent media coverage:

* MIT Technology Review’s 50 Smartest Companies 2015: http://www.technologyreview.com/lists/companies/2015/

* Techcrunch TV: http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/10/counsyl-automates-genetic-t...

* Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/3041662/most-innovative-companies...

* Inc: http://www.inc.com/magazine/201507/jeff-bercovici/can-peter-...

If you have a background in factory or lab automation and are interested in applying your skills to a genomics lab you should email me at jonas@counsyl.com, we're looking for people like you to join the automation team.

The other option might be ferries that carry trains. I believe they don't do this across the Irish Sea, but I've been on a train that drives onto a ferry across the Baltic sea connecting Berlin and Malmo (Sweden). You can get off the train while on the ferry, but you don't have to.

If you want to see a client connect to Wifi very fast, check out the electricImp [0] module. I've never seen mine take longer than two seconds to go from power-on to it being registered with the server (EC2 instance).

[0] http://electricimp.com/

I think you are confusing your personal use case with everybody's use case. What's a "normal app" anyway? Did you mean to say "apps I use on a daily basis"? Because of the 17 apps on my home screen, 6 do not have a functional requirement for internet connectivity. I bet for users in emerging markets this ratio might be even higher.

> If a user ONLY gets a permissions pop-up when it actually matters...

For most people, spending money is something that actually matters. Again, just because you don't have metered data, doesn't mean everyone else is in the same situation.

> Just an obstruction which teaches the users permissions can be safely ignored

Google manages to sort millions of search results by relevancy, I'm sure they can do the same for app permissions.

I ride Caltrain every day and the experience annoys me a lot (still less than driving), but I feel sorry for the people running Caltrain because despite providing a valuable infrastructure service that is in huge demand, they are considered the lowest priority by everyone they interact with and have to deal with the most ridiculous restrictions and regulations. For example, Caltrain knows that they are always behind schedule during rush hour and want to adjust their schedule. But to do that they have to consult everyone and their uncle over a year-long process where every nutjob's concerns about a five minute scheduling change can stall the entire process.

Infrastructure projects deal with such problems everywhere, but I have not seen a place where this attitude is so deeply engrained and systematic like here.