Software Engineer — Multimodal Data and Sensor Infrastructure

The role

Build acquisition software that allows several sensors to behave like one trustworthy experimental instrument. Accurate timestamps, dropped-sample detection, device failures, and reproducible recordings matter as much as the interface researchers use.

The work

• Build software to communicate with custom hardware and third-party sensing devices.
• Develop data-acquisition applications for physiological, audio, video, behavioral and contextual signals.
• Implement reliable timestamping, synchronization, buffering and event annotation.
• Create acquisition tools that let researchers configure experiments, inspect signals and detect recording failures.
• Develop APIs and integrations across Bluetooth, USB, serial, network and vendor SDK interfaces.
• Build participant-facing applications and researcher dashboards where needed.
• Implement robust offline collection, secure upload, versioning and recovery from hardware or network failures.
• Design automated data-quality checks and diagnostics.

What matters

• Strong software engineering experience in Python, C++, Rust or equivalent languages.
• Experience integrating hardware, sensors, device SDKs or real-time data streams.
• Understanding of timestamp accuracy, concurrency, asynchronous systems and failure recovery.
• Ability to design maintainable APIs, databases and production-quality software.
• Experience with Linux and practical debugging of hardware–software interfaces.

What good work looks like

A robust acquisition tool with synchronized sensor streams, failure recovery, and traceable measurement quality.

Why this work matters

Make multimodal experimental data synchronized, reproducible, and useful.

Get in touch

Send us your CV, your personal website or examples of work you have done, particularly software you built for sensors, data acquisition or reliable research systems. Include an informal handwritten statement of purpose, with no prescribed length, telling us why this mission matters to you, what difficult work has taught you, and what you would like to take responsibility for at Walnut. This mission will demand scientific rigor, patience, independent thinking and a willingness to test ideas against reality. Write the statement entirely in your own words, without using generative AI. We will not consider statements written using AI. A photograph or scan of the statement is sufficient, and a typed version is welcome if handwriting is difficult. A reference from someone who knows your work is welcome, but not required.