Senior Principal Robotics Software Engineer

About the Role

Join our fast-paced and passionate team as a Senior Principal Robotics Software Engineer. As we scale, you will be instrumental in building our foundation from the ground up. This is a dynamic, hands-on role for a self-starter who thrives in a fluid startup environment. You'll have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge technologies, work closely with leadership, and develop and implement engineering practices that support our mission and growth.

Responsibilities

• Build motion and trajectory planning for pick and place tasks, ranging from patterned and adaptive, sensor-driven motions to resource-aware sequencing that coordinates multiple robots working the same part.
• Develop kinematics, reachability, and motion planning, including inverse kinematics and trajectory planning for robotic manipulators, and validate plans so motion is collision-free and executable.
• Own the driver layer that connects to robot hardware, streaming motion commands to the robot controller in real time and abstracting sensors behind clean, reliable interfaces.
• Advance the stack with learning-based methods and simulation, including reinforcement learning, learned planners, and sim-to-real training, alongside classical approaches.
• Set technical direction for the robotics software stack (behaviors, motion planning, world modeling, and device control) and how it integrates with fleet management and higher-level systems.
• Mentor other engineers on the team, raising the bar on code quality, planning approaches, and robotics engineering practices.
• Write unit tests and validation suites to ensure motion planning and control software is reliable, safe, and robust.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including hardware and process engineers, to make sure planning and control decisions hold up on real hardware.
• Participate in and lead code reviews, provide constructive feedback, and hold the team to strong coding and safety practices.
• Maintain clear and well-structured documentation for planning algorithms, calibration procedures, and system interfaces.
• Work independently and in a team while over-communicating with the manager, project engineer, and teammates.
• Use tenacity, patience, self-discipline, and passion for excellence to assure accuracy of execution schedule, data quality and integrity, conformance to company best practices, clarity in communication, and documentation.
• Use every opportunity to grow your own competency and the team's, through mentorship, curiosity, communication, exposure, and initiative.

Requirements

This position requires access to export-controlled information. Employment is contingent upon the applicant being a U.S. person as defined by 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3).

• A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years building robotics software, with a track record of owning motion planning or controls systems end to end.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction beyond your own immediate work.
• Experience working in a startup or fast-paced technology company environment is a plus.

Skills

• Strong background in modern C++ (17/20/23), with Python experience.
• Hands-on experience with robotics, motion control, or controls software. You've built software that drives physical hardware, not just simulated it.
• Deep experience with kinematics, reachability, and motion planning, including inverse kinematics and trajectory planning for robotic manipulators.
• Worked with physical robots using a world model, with experience planning against that world model.
• Calibration experience to address sim-to-real gaps.
• Comfortable with multithreading, concurrency, and debugging systems-level behavior.
• Fluent developing and operating software on Windows, with Git.
• Familiar with solid engineering practice: some mix of TDD, unit testing, and CI/CD.
• AI literacy in modern software development, including fluency with AI-assisted coding tools and good judgment about when and how to use them to accelerate development without sacrificing code quality or safety.
• Strong mentorship instincts and experience growing other engineers.
• Bonus points for experience with learning-based methods or robot simulation (RL, imitation learning, sim-to-real), SLAM and navigation, or ROS.
• Experience with Foxglove is a plus.
• Realtime systems experience is a plus.

Pay

The expected annual salary range for this position is $195,000-$235,000.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance
• Fidelity 401(k) plan with 4% employer matching
• 20 paid time off (PTO) days per year
• 13 paid company holidays
• 9/80 work schedule (every other Friday off)