Senior Python Software Engineer Jobs in Monterey, CA

Workplace: On-site, 5 days per week
Location: Marina, CA

We are seeking an engineer to build custom device drivers and data integrations that connect off-the-shelf automation equipment directly into our Ignition platform. This role is software-first. These systems do not use PLCs. Devices communicate over basic protocols (TCP/IP, serial) and are integrated via custom Python drivers running on edge devices, with data surfaced into Ignition Perspective and published over MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport). The engineer will own the path from raw byte-level device communication through driver development, API services, containerized deployment, and production rollout.

Key Job Responsibilities
• Write custom TCP/IP drivers in Python for off-the-shelf automation equipment and devices that do not ship with native SCADA connectivity
• Manipulate and parse data at the byte level, constructing and decoding raw binary protocol frames, handling packing and unpacking, endianness, framing, and checksums
• Interface directly with new and unfamiliar device types, reverse-engineering or implementing their communication interfaces (TCP/IP sockets, serial protocols, board-level or PCB-level interfaces) and mapping device functions into a usable driver layer
• Stand up and validate new devices independently, bringing them online outside the production system before integrating them
• Configure Ignition to interface with these devices in the absence of a PLC layer, developing screens and functionality in Ignition Perspective
• Design and implement API services that expose device functionality, and own the deployment strategy for those services into production
• Containerize drivers and services using Docker, and deploy them onto edge devices, including touchscreen industrial PCs on the floor
• Manage container lifecycle in production, including image builds, versioning, updates, restart and recovery behavior, and resource constraints on edge hardware
• Publish time-series device data over MQTT using standard industrial schemas, specifically Sparkplug B, including correct topic namespace, payload encoding, and birth/death certificate handling
• Optimize for latency and cycle time, with a long-term mandate to reduce cycle time and deliver reliable real-time data
• Build automation around the integration so it scales and replicates across devices and stations
• Document driver interfaces, network architecture, container configurations, and deployment procedures
Required Qualifications
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Controls Engineering, Mechatronics, Software Engineering, or equivalent technical field
• Strong, production-grade Python development experience. This is a primary requirement, not a scripting side skill
• Demonstrated experience writing custom TCP/IP or socket-level drivers for hardware devices
• Hands-on experience manipulating data at the byte level, including binary protocol parsing, serialization, and bitwise operations
• Hands-on experience with serial protocols and integrating off-the-shelf or board-level devices that lack turnkey connectivity
• Working knowledge of MQTT, including standard industrial schemas such as Sparkplug B
• Experience with Ignition (Inductive Automation), specifically Perspective, and the ability to articulate Perspective versus Vision tradeoffs
• Experience designing and deploying API services, including deployment to production
• Hands-on experience with Docker and containerization, including writing Dockerfiles, building images, and deploying containerized services
• Experience deploying software to edge devices or industrial PCs
• Comfortable working onsite in an active manufacturing environment
Preferred Qualifications
• Deep MQTT Sparkplug B implementation experience (edge node and device lifecycle, birth/death certificates, protobuf payload encoding)
• Experience with container orchestration and management at the edge (Docker Compose, Portainer, K3s, or comparable)
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines for building and shipping containerized services
• Experience with latency optimization and cycle-time reduction in real-time data systems
• Prior work integrating devices into SCADA or MES platforms without an intermediate PLC layer
• Exposure to aerospace, EV, or other regulated manufacturing environments where data traceability is critical
• Experience with Ignition module development or gateway scripting
• Familiarity with time-series data storage and retrieval at scale
• Experience with Python's struct, socket, and asyncio libraries or equivalent low-level networking and binary-parsing tooling
Salary Range
• $120,000-$145,000
• The actual salary offered is dependent on various factors including, but not limited to, location, the candidate's combination of job-related knowledge, qualifications, skills, education, training, and experience