Software Developer
About P&P Optica
P&P Optica (PPO) is dedicated to improving the safety, quality, and efficiency of food production in North America. Our Smart Imaging System incorporates PPO’s world-class expertise in spectroscopy and data analysis, which helps food processors provide food products that are safer, healthier, and of higher quality. PPO is growing quickly as our market expands, and we’re looking for talented new individuals to join our team.
At PPO, we believe it’s important to love what we do and to be proud of our work. We provide a friendly and respectful work environment that offers our team new and interesting challenges and opportunities.
What You’ll Get To Do
The successful candidate will become a key member of the software team at P&P Optica. P&P Optica’s software team is responsible for a wide range of activities including input to the design of our Smart Imaging Systems, development of data-capture, image-processing, and machine-learning modules for real-time analysis, hardware interfacing for microcontroller platforms, custom control modules and production integration, chemometric algorithm development, user interface design, and customer data portal facilities. Software team members are involved in all aspects of our software stack; we encourage broad knowledge and cooperation across the team by constantly challenging ourselves in new system software areas. In this role you will:
- Design and develop software for complex, multi-instrument, smart imaging systems.
- Enhance and optimize tooling for data capture and analysis with usability feedback from PPO’s Applications Engineering teams and fellow Software teammates.
- Enhance and optimize tools for development of machine learning models for developer efficiency and online operation in food processing facilities.
- Develop tools for use across multiple environments including in house development servers, remotely deployed systems and AWS cloud infrastructure
- Create/adapt Python-based machine-learning and chemometric algorithms for data analysis.
- Document the use, internals, and installation of software systems, for coworkers and customers.
Additional Tasks May Include
- Software installation on production and feasibility systems.
- Testing of new software releases.
- Evaluation and integration of software development infrastructure.
- Support for on-site installation and testing at Customer’s facilities.
- Mentoring and supervision of interns, co-op students, and contractors.
- Software support for hardware and applications engineering groups.
- Work with external suppliers for hardware and software (e.g. cloud infrastructure).
- Can support a range of physical and virtual servers running Windows and Linux.
- Will evaluate products and technologies for user and company IT needs.
- Can handle network maintenance, architecture and evolution for local and cloud applications, often with huge data sets.
- Will take care of security architecture for local and cloud-based applications, with international partners.
- Will manage redundancy planning (backups and more) and information security design.
You at PPO
You want to work for a fast-paced, growing company that focuses on providing innovative solutions to help its customers. You want to be part of a team of motivated people like yourself who are eager to solve challenging problems and learn new skills. You have a positive attitude, care about doing things right, and are motivated by making a positive impact. You have strong design instincts but don’t hesitate to get your hands dirty with implementation. You know when to extend existing tools, when to optimize, and when to start over again.
Skills and Experience
- 3-5 years of experience developing industrial-strength software.
- Solid experience with software development processes and tooling.
- Strong understanding of concurrency, distributed systems and other core software principles.
- Strong background in mathematics & statistics as applied to data analysis, signal processing, or chemometrics.
- Ability to architect, implement and prove out effective AI-based solutions for complex soft-real time data processing problems.
- Industrial experience with Python.
- Strong written and verbal communications skills with experience documenting software designs.
- Ability to work effectively as part of a fast-paced, multi-disciplinary team with clear communication to all team members and management.
Bonus Skills and Experience
- Knowledge of cloud computing ecosystems such as AWS, Azure or GCP
- Understanding of front end web frameworks such as ReactJS
- Significant Linux experience is an asset.
- Comfortable with both low-level embedded software and higher-level, whole-system abstractions.
- Familiarity with C/C++ and hardware interfacing techniques.
- Experience with automation using microcontrollers and/or PLCs.
- Food industry experience is a significant asset.
Life at PPO
You’ll REALLY love working at PPO. Here’s why:
Open Culture: our culture is based on openness and trust, and that’s reflected in everything we do. We’re a very diverse team and we celebrate what we share as well as our differences.
Supportive Environment: We love celebrating birthdays, work anniversaries and other special events. We also challenge each other to meet both our personal and professional goals.
Work-life Balance - Really! We believe in working hard. We also believe that work is just one part of life. We make sure you have time for activities and responsibilities outside of PPO. You also receive flex days in addition to your allocated vacation.
Social Events: You’re invited to join us at happy hour every Friday and our monthly team social. Past socials include dumpling making, axe throwing and trivia.
Health Benefits: PPO offers very competitive benefits, including health, dental, vision and more for you and your dependents.
Hybrid Work Model: Right now, we encourage all employees to work from home when possible. Depending on your role, you might work from home, our office or both. Our office follows stringent safety and sanitary precautions and protocols.
Community Oriented: You’ll have an opportunity to participate in our annual team charity fundraiser. We are also proud to be part of Waterloo’s thriving Tech Hub.
Ongoing Learning: Learning is built into our culture at PPO. You’re encouraged to expand your knowledge and education through new experiences, courses, and other learning opportunities.
P&P Optica is committed to supporting a culture of diversity across our organization. Our hiring practices align with human rights laws, guaranteeing every person equal treatment in regard to employment and opportunity for employment, regardless of race, color, creed/religion, sex, sexual orientation, marital status. We welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.