Principal Robotics Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in California.

📋 Description

• Lead extensive technical initiatives in perception, localization and mapping, planning, and control.

• Recognize autonomy algorithmic and system limitations and drive resolution of the most challenging issues.

• Design and implement production-quality systems throughout the autonomy software stack.

• Establish and uphold stable API agreements between autonomy components and the wider software platform.

• Enhance software quality in production through testing, code reviews, profiling, and architectural best practices.

• Coordinate engineers across various teams on a unified technical path without formal authority.

• Provide mentorship to senior and staff engineers and evaluate design proposals.

• Collaborate with research partners and internal scientists to turn prototypes into reliable deployment capabilities.

• Oversee root-cause analysis for intricate fleet-wide reliability and performance challenges.

• Set up observability, diagnostics, and engineering standards for dependable real-world robotic operations.

⛳️ Requirements

• Master’s or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field—or equivalent professional experience.

• Over 10 years of experience in developing production robotics or autonomy software, demonstrating Principal- or Staff-level technical influence.

• Extensive knowledge in modern C++ and Python programming languages.

• Proficient in ROS/ROS2, Linux, and Git.

• Experience in designing large-scale autonomy systems across at least two areas: perception, SLAM/localization, planning, and control.

• Strong understanding of real-time systems, concurrency, and performance enhancement techniques.

• Capability to lead intricate technical projects across multiple teams and steer direction without formal management authority.

• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills.

• PhD with a strong publication record in robotics, perception, or machine learning is advantageous.

• Practical experience with legged and wheeled robot platforms is a plus.

• Familiarity with learning-based navigation, traversability, or planning methods, including vision foundation models or reinforcement learning is beneficial.

• Experience using Isaac Sim, Gazebo, or MuJoCo is a plus.

• Background in deploying and maintaining robot fleets in challenging or unstructured real-world settings is advantageous.

• Knowledge of Prometheus or Grafana is a plus.

🏝️ Benefits

• An inclusive workplace dedicated to diversity and equal opportunity.

• Opportunity to collaborate with colleagues across the United States and globally.