Senior Robotics Engineer / Onsite / Woburn, MA

An innovative robotics company in Woburn, MA is seeking a Senior Robotics Engineer – Motion Planning to join their team. The company is developing automated tire changing and wheel balancing technology that combines advanced robotics, multi-axis motion systems, perception, and intelligent software.

About the role

This is a high-ownership opportunity for a robotics engineer who wants to be a primary technical driver for motion planning and control on a unique robotic platform. You’ll work directly with custom multi-axis hardware, solving challenging problems involving motion planning, collision avoidance, kinematics, trajectory optimization, and real-world robotic execution. As part of a small, highly capable team, you’ll have significant influence over technical direction, direct access to hardware, and the opportunity to take sophisticated robotics technology from prototype through real-world deployment.

Responsibilities

Tech Breakdown

• 30% Motion Planning & Trajectory Optimization — Develop collision-aware motion planning using OMPL, RRT/RRT-Connect/PRM, Pilz, CHOMP, STOMP, TrajOpt, and other planning approaches
• 20% ROS 2 & MoveIt Development — Build and maintain ROS 2 nodes, MoveIt/MoveIt 2 configurations, planning scenes, URDF/SRDF models, planner interfaces, joint groups, and trajectory execution systems
• 20% Robotics Software & Controls — Develop software for actuator state feedback, joint state publishing, trajectory execution, motion control, and hardware interfaces
• 15% Kinematics, Collision Avoidance & Safety — Define kinematic constraints, velocity/acceleration limits, collision models, safety interlocks, and joint-specific motion profiles
• 15% Simulation, Testing & Field Deployment — Validate robotic behaviors in simulation, perform hardware-in-the-loop testing, debug production hardware, and optimize motion performance during field deployments

Daily Responsibilities

• 50% Hands-On Engineering — Write and review C++/Python code, develop motion planning algorithms, tune planners, debug trajectories, and optimize robotic performance
• 20% Hardware & Systems Integration — Work directly with robotic hardware, actuators, drives, sensors, and low-level interfaces to ensure reliable motion execution
• 15% Testing & Validation — Build simulation and validation workflows, test collision avoidance and trajectory execution, and ensure motion planning meets production requirements
• 15% Team Collaboration — Partner with perception, systems, hardware, firmware, and software engineers to define requirements, troubleshoot integration issues, and establish technical direction

Requirements

• Deep expertise in robotic motion planning algorithms, including sampling-based methods such as RRT and RRT*, probabilistic roadmaps (PRM), and trajectory optimization techniques such as CHOMP, STOMP, or TrajOpt
• 2+ years of hands-on experience with ROS 2 and MoveIt/MoveIt 2 in production or near-production robotic systems
• Strong understanding of robot kinematics, including forward and inverse kinematics for serial and parallel manipulators
• Hands-on experience with kinematic solvers such as KDL, TRAC-IK, or equivalent
• Strong understanding of collision avoidance, occupancy representations, voxel grids, OctoMap, and safety-aware motion planning
• Experience configuring and adapting URDF/SRDF models, planning scenes, planner interfaces, joint groups, and motion profiles
• Strong proficiency in C++ and/or Python within the ROS 2 ecosystem
• Understanding of real-time performance considerations, memory management, software architecture, and robotics software design patterns
• Proven ability to diagnose complex hardware/software integration issues, from high-level trajectory failures to low-level actuator constraints
• Experience developing production-grade robotic systems capable of reliable, fast motion planning under real-world constraints
• Experience working with dynamic obstacles, tight tolerances, and complex collision environments
• Experience with robotic simulation environments for development, testing, and validation
• Strong software engineering fundamentals, including writing clean, maintainable, well-tested code and documenting technical designs

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field

Skills

• Experience with the Pilz Industrial Motion Planner, OMPL, CHOMP, STOMP, or other industrial motion planning frameworks
• Background in automotive service equipment, industrial automation, manufacturing systems, or complex mechatronic platforms
• Experience with real-time trajectory execution and hardware-in-the-loop testing
• Experience with safety-rated motion control, safety interlocks, or other robotic safety systems
• Full-stack robotics experience spanning motor control, drive systems, hardware abstraction layers (HAL), and low-level firmware interfaces
• Experience integrating perception systems into reactive or perception-driven motion planning
• Familiarity with LiDAR, depth cameras, IMUs, point clouds, PCL, Open3D, SLAM, or object detection
• Experience deploying and debugging robotic systems in the field
• Experience working with multi-manipulator or multi-axis robotic systems operating in confined or highly constrained environments
• Experience optimizing robotic systems for fast, repeatable, production-ready operation