Define and Evolve Architecture: Own and drive the long-term technical direction for the robot software stack, including component boundaries, data contracts, inter-process communication protocols (RPC/streaming), and deployment workflows.
Core Frameworks & Services: Take hands-on ownership of the critical, cross-cutting frameworks and core services that are fundamental dependencies for all robot features, such as:
Behavior coordination and state machine frameworks.
The robot’s belief state and world representation.
Simulation and playback timing coordination mechanisms.
Advanced logging, telemetry, and configuration management libraries.
Performance & Reliability: Drive performance, determinism, and reliability improvements across the entire on-robot software stack, and evaluate and introduce major infrastructure upgrades.
Internal Tooling: Lead the strategy and execution for internal developer tooling, including advanced debugging utilities and scripts for provisioning and testing within simulation and hardware environments.
Technical Advisor: Act as the primary technical advisor, mentoring Senior and Staff-level engineers on system design, developer experience, and best practices across the full software development lifecycle.
Drive Adoption: Champion the adoption of internal tools and foundational frameworks by cultivating strong collaboration and iterating based on organizational feedback.
Engineering Partnership: Partner directly with AI, Controls, and Perception teams to ensure frameworks meet their performance and capability needs, accelerating their feature delivery.
Data Platform: Coordinate with the Data Platform team on advanced logging, serialization, and telemetry strategies.
Release Alignment: Align with OS and Release teams on container, image, and deployment primitives, focusing on high-level integration points rather than low-level operating system ownership.

Requirements

12+ years of professional experience in high-performance, real-time, or deeply embedded software engineering, with a significant track record in robotics or similar complex, integrated systems.
Demonstrated expertise in defining and evolving large-scale software architectures, and a history of ownership over mission-critical, cross-cutting frameworks.
Mastery of modern C++ and expert-level proficiency in systems programming on Linux.
Expertise in designing, building, and operating low-latency and highly reliable distributed systems, particularly those with strict timing and determinism requirements.
Proven experience mentoring and providing architectural guidance to Staff and Principal-level engineers.
Exceptional ability to autonomously gather complex, cross-team requirements, communicate high-stakes technical trade-offs, and deliver foundational internal solutions.

Benefits

401(k) Plan: Includes a 6% company match.
Equity: Company stock options.
Insurance Coverage: 100% company-paid medical, dental, vision, and short/long-term disability insurance for employees.
Benefit Start Date: Eligible for benefits on your first day of employment.
Well-Being Support: Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
Time Off:
Exempt Employees: Flexible, unlimited PTO and 10 company holidays, including a winter shutdown.
Non-Exempt Employees: 10 vacation days, paid sick leave, and 10 company holidays, including a winter shutdown, annually.
On-Site Perks: Catered lunches four times a week and a variety of healthy snacks and refreshments at our Salem and Pittsburgh locations.
Parental Leave: Generous paid parental leave programs.
Work Environment: A culture that supports flexible work arrangements.
Growth Opportunities: Professional development and tuition reimbursement programs.
Relocation Assistance: Provided for eligible roles.
Annual Discretionary Bonus: Provided for eligible roles.

Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard Skills & Tools

C++Linuxreal-time software engineeringembedded software engineeringdistributed systemsperformance optimizationreliability engineeringdebugging utilitiessystem designsoftware architecture

Soft Skills

mentoringcommunicationcollaborationleadershipautonomous requirement gatheringtechnical advisoryproblem-solvingcross-team coordinationfeedback iterationarchitectural guidance