Senior Software Engineer, Robotics & Physical AI Integration

About the role

We are looking for a Senior Software Engineer to integrate ML model inference with physical hardware. This role requires ownership of the full stack from industrial fieldbuses to real-time control loops.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement software that integrates ML model inference with physical hardware, including motion controllers, servo drives, actuators, and industrial I/O.
• Develop and maintain ROS 2 nodes, hardware abstraction layers, and device drivers for robotics and automation hardware.
• Implement and own communication stacks across industrial fieldbuses including EtherCAT, CANopen, Modbus, and Profinet.
• Interface with industrial robot controllers (e.g., FANUC, KUKA, ABB, Universal Robots, Yaskawa) via vendor SDKs, proprietary communication interfaces, and standard industrial protocols; translate controller capabilities and constraints into software integration requirements.
• Interface with low-level embedded hardware over SPI, I2C, UART, GPIO, and CAN, and collaborate with embedded engineers to define cross-boundary interfaces.
• Integrate machine vision and camera systems, including image acquisition pipelines, sensor calibration, and routing vision outputs to downstream control and inference logic.
• Collaborate with the ML Engineer to define inference APIs, data contracts, and performance budgets between model outputs and physical actuators.
• Develop real-time and near-real-time control loops on Linux (PREEMPT_RT) and RTOS targets, with a clear understanding of scheduling, jitter, and determinism requirements.
• Build hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and integration test infrastructure that can verify system behavior with and without live hardware.
• Document software architecture, interface contracts, timing assumptions, and integration procedures for both internal engineering and regulatory purposes.
• Proactively identify integration risks, timing failures, and hardware/software boundary issues before they surface as field problems.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in systems or robotics software engineering with a demonstrated track record of shipping software that controls physical hardware in production.
• Strong proficiency in C and C++; Python for tooling, scripting, and test automation.
• Hands-on experience writing ROS 2 nodes, services, actions, and hardware interface layers; comfortable with launch systems, parameter management, and tf2.
• Practical experience implementing at least one industrial fieldbus protocol — EtherCAT, CANopen, Modbus, or Profinet — in a production system.
• Working knowledge of SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, and GPIO, and experience debugging communication failures at the signal level.
• Experience with real-time Linux (PREEMPT_RT or Xenomai) or an RTOS (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or QNX) for deterministic control, with an understanding of how to measure and bound latency.
• Familiarity with functional safety standards relevant to machinery or software in safety-critical systems (e.g., IEC 62304, ISO 13849, or IEC 61508), with an ability to translate safety requirements into software constraints.
• Demonstrated ability to isolate failures in systems where the root cause may be in software, firmware, hardware, or the interface between them.
• Solid fundamentals — Git, code review, unit and integration testing, CI/CD — applied to systems code, not just application code.
• Nice to have: Experience integrating machine vision systems using GigE Vision, USB3 Vision, or similar standards; familiarity with OpenCV or other vision processing libraries; working knowledge of motion control concepts; experience consuming ML inference runtimes (TFLite, ONNX, TensorRT) within a control or perception pipeline; exposure to simulation and digital twin environments such as Gazebo, NVIDIA Isaac Sim, or MoveIt for offline testing and development; experience in a startup or small-team environment where you own architecture decisions and build tooling and process alongside the product.

What We Value

• Ownership: you own the behavior of the physical system end to end, from fieldbus packet to actuator response, and you do not hand problems off at the first sign of ambiguity.
• Self-motivation: you identify gaps in integration coverage, tooling, and system reliability on your own, and you close them without waiting to be asked.
• Problem-solving depth: you are not satisfied with a system that works most of the time; you understand the failure modes, quantify the risk, and drive to root cause.
• Curiosity and continuous learning: the intersection of AI and physical systems is new territory, and you are drawn to it rather than cautious of it.
• Direct, clear communication: you write well, translate hardware constraints into software requirements for ML collaborators, and surface timing and safety risks early.

Education Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related field required. Advanced degree is a plus but not a substitute for hands-on experience shipping software that controls physical systems.

Our Benefits

• Flexible Time Off: Benefit from our generous flexible time off policy. We also provide sick leave and bereavement time because we understand that not all time off is for fun.
• Retirement Savings: Invest in your future with a 401(k)-retirement plan. Goddard contributes 3% of your annual salary directly into your 401(k) account—regardless of your own contributions.
• Health Coverage: Access to comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family. Goddard contributes 80% of monthly premiums for all medical plan options.
• Family Support: To take the time you need to welcome the newest member of your family, Goddard offer 6 weeks fully paid parental leave with support of PFML state programs.
• Company Engagement: Engage with your colleagues through a variety of regular company and team events, including weekly social hours, Athletic Club outings, and department outings.

Pay Range

The Pay Range For This Role Is 140,000 - 165,000 USD per year (Wilmington Office)