Principal Robotics Software Engineer

About the Role

Join the robotics team at a defense technology company developing autonomous systems to detect and counter unmanned aerial threats. This is a senior, hands-on individual contributor role focused on production robotics software running on real hardware.

What You'll Do

• Write and own critical production C++ across the robotics stack.
• Define and maintain system-wide timing and safety contracts from perception through control.
• Take software from prototype to dependable field releases, including packaging, deployment, CI/CD, quality assurance, and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
• Mentor and grow the robotics team while continuing to contribute code directly.
• Debug hardware and field issues, including during regular range tests.

What We're Looking For

• 10 or more years of hands-on robotics software engineering experience and a record of shipping systems.
• Recent, hands-on production C++ experience on physical robotic systems.
• Experience taking robotics software from prototype to repeatable use in field, operator, fleet, or customer settings.
• System-level experience with timing, threading, latency, and reliability, as well as release processes, deployment, CI/CD, quality assurance, or hardware-in-the-loop testing.
• Broad robotics experience across sensors, perception, tracking, control, middleware, and deployment; familiarity with sensor timestamps, time synchronization, or coordinate transforms is valuable.
• Experience mentoring or growing a team while remaining an individual contributor.
• ROS or ROS2 and experience with cameras, IMUs, encoders, or gimbal systems are useful. Defense, aerospace, safety-critical software, systems languages beyond C++, sensor fusion, or an active security clearance are also valuable.
• Must meet applicable U.S. person requirements for export-controlled work.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary

$235,000 to $305,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.

Location

On-site five days per week in San Francisco, California, United States, with range days included.