Software Engineering Intern – ML & Automation

**About Perceptra** Perceptra is an MIT spin-out with teams in Oakland, CA and Eindhoven. Our mission is to give people and machines the power to perceive the chemical world. We build Raman sensors that measure chemistry in real time. Our OmniTrace analyzer connects to a probe inserted into the bioreactor and tracks nutrients and products, like glucose and ethanol, without manual sampling. Our next generation runs on our own photonic chips. **The role** Most bioreactors today are run by hand. Operators take samples, wait for lab results, and adjust. We're building toward self-driving bioreactors: systems that sense what's happening inside the vessel in real time, give operators clear, actionable insight, and adjust the process automatically. You'll help build the software layer that makes this possible: from the sensor hardware, through data pipelines and sensor fusion, to the ML models that turn raw spectra into decisions, the dashboards operators rely on, and the link back to the bioreactor's control system. If you've built a project where a model, a backend and a user interface all had to work together, you'll feel at home here. **What you'll work on** • ML infrastructure for training, versioning, deploying and monitoring models that run next to a live bioreactor • Software and pipelines that collect, clean, store and version data from our Raman systems • Simple dashboards that show operators what's happening and what to do next • Closed-loop control: connecting to bioreactor control systems over OPC UA so our measurements can automatically adjust feed rates and other process inputs • Embedded code for sensor control and data acquisition • Basic signal processing: filtering, baseline correction, noise handling **What you'll learn** This internship is built around learning. You'll arrive with software skills and leave knowing how to apply them to real sensing systems. You'll learn: • How Raman spectroscopy works and what real spectral data looks like • How bioprocesses like fermentation and cell culture run, and what operators need to know • Chemometrics, the statistics and ML methods used to turn spectra into concentrations • Sensor fusion principles, applied to noisy real-world data • How to take an ML model from a notebook to a reliable system running next to a bioreactor • How hardware, firmware and software come together in a commercial instrument **Requirements** * Currently enrolled in, or recently graduated from, a Bachelor’s or Master’s in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field * Strong programming skills in Python and C/C++ * Experience with machine learning tools such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or scikit-learn * Experience programming microcontrollers and embedded systems * Comfortable with Linux, Git, and Docker * Good written and spoken English **Nice to have** * Signal processing or data analysis * Experience taking ML models beyond the notebook * IoT or industrial protocols such as MQTT, OPC UA, or Modbus * Databases and monitoring tools (PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, Grafana) * Automated testing and CI/CD **Internship Details** * Full-time * On-site at High Tech Campus, Eindhoven, Netherlands * 6 months, with the possibility to extend to 12 months * Flexible start date, ideally January 2027 * English-speaking environment; Dutch is not required **What we offer** * Competitive internship allowance * A dedicated supervisor from our engineering team * Real work that contributes to a real product * Direct access to a small engineering team and the founders * Exposure to software, ML, photonics, and automation * Residence permit sponsorship for eligible candidates **How to apply** Send your CV and a short note about a project you built end to end, ideally one involving hardware, sensors or real-world data, to [email protected] . GitHub links and project write-ups are welcome. We review applications on a rolling basis. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds.