Software Engineer - Factory Automation

At Janicki Industries, we turn complex ideas into real-world solutions through advanced engineering and manufacturing. Our teams design and build innovative structures, tooling, and systems that support industries including aerospace, space, defense, marine, and architecture . Across every role, from engineers and technicians to operations and support teams, our people help solve challenging problems, push the limits of design and manufacturing, and create solutions that make a lasting impact. This position is located in Sedro Woolley, Washington State. DEPARTMENT SUMMARY Janicki is building a new machining facility in Montana centered on approximately 25 large five-axis mills and automating nearly everything that happens between the receiving dock and the spindle. Pallets, billets, tools, chips, and finished parts will move under machine control via AGVs, AMRs, robots, and cobots. The orchestration software for that system does not exist yet. You will write it. This is not maintenance work. Two engineers will build the scheduling and control layer for a factory still under construction. The constraints are physical, the resources are contended, and idle spindles are not an option. ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES - Support a production floor with approximately 25 five-axis mills arranged along a single central traffic lane - Coordinate AGV/AMR pallet shuttling, chip evacuation, and cutter delivery across the facility - Enable robotic billet handling, clamping, and work preparation - Build a scheduling and sequencing engine whose primary objective is zero spindle wait - Develop traffic management, zone control, deadlock detection, and recovery for the central lane - Implement look ahead material and tooling staging so the right resources arrive before the current job ends - Coordinate fleet operations across mixed vendors and protocols, including heterogeneous coordination across shared, bidirectional lanes - Build integration services for SAP, tool life, machine state, program status, and MES - Develop simulation and digital-twin tooling for safe, high-volume testing - Create operator interfaces for visibility, override, and explanation - Treat robust exception handling as a core product capability - Manage multiple priorities and deadlines while maintaining strong communication and collaborative working relationships - Direct AI coding agents fluently across multi-week bodies of work not just autocomplete - Work spec-first: define the problem, constraints, interfaces, and acceptance criteria before writing code - Decompose work for parallel AI agents while owning the integration seams - Engineer context deliberately, thinking in graphs for both agent workflows and the factory itself - Apply rigorous verification, judging where AI-generated code is appropriate versus where code must remain small, deterministic, and hand-reviewed - Continuously improve your own AI-assisted development tooling and raise the team's throughput - Perform additional engineering duties as assigned BASIC QUALIFICATIONS - 5+ years building production systems that ran unattended and carried real consequences when they failed - Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field required; Master’s degree preferred - Strong distributed systems fundamentals: event-driven design, idempotency, state reconciliation, partial failure, and back-pressure - Practical experience shipping scheduling, planning, or optimization systems - Fluency in Python, C#, Java, Go, or Rust - Disciplined engineering practices: testing, CI, observability, and simulation-first development - Willingness to work and travel in MT and WA spend real time on the floor - Must have effective verbal and written communication skills in the English language - Due to our ITAR and EAR regulations, applicants must be a US Citizen or of Legal Permanent Resident Status as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b (a) (3). DETAILED WAGE INFORMATION - Wage range for this role is between $140,000 - $210,000 annually , plus a discretionary bonus, 401(k) matching, vacation, and health benefits. Employees can also receive additional pay for off-shifts, off-site work, and access pay. The range provided is Janicki’s estimate of the base compensation for this role. Actual amount offered will be based on job-related and non-discriminatory factors such as experience, location, education, training, skills, and abilities BENEFITS - Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance with employer contribution - Disability insurance as well as Life/AD&D insurance - HSA (Health Savings Account) with employer contribution and FSA (Flexible Savings Account) - 401k with employer matching - Paid time off and paid holidays (including two floating holidays) - Education reimbursement program - Several shift options - Premium pay for off-shifts - Premium pay for security clearance if applicable Not sure that you’ll be the perfect fit for this role? You should still apply! We’ll review your application for other opportunities. We are always on the lookout for talented people! By applying for this job, you are expressing interest in this position and could be considered for other career opportunities where similar skills and requirements have been identified as a match. Should this match be identified, you may be contacted for this and future openings. Janicki Industries is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Janicki Industries does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, marital or familial status, physical or mental disability, genetic information, age, retaliation, veteran/military service status, or any other legally protected status. Janicki is proud to be a military friendly employer. Applicants or employees wishing to view a copy of Janicki Industries’ Affirmative Action Plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should notify the Human Resources Department at (360) 404-1997. As a federal government contractor and a recipient of federal funding, Janicki is required to abide by federal drug testing requirements (including preemployment drug testing for cannabis). Additionally, because of Janicki’s work on aerospace products and the high volume of safety sensitive positions, Janicki takes the safety of its employees very seriously and requires that employees pass a preemployment drug test prior to starting employment.