Robotics Systems Engineer

Atoms•San Francisco, CA

7d•$182,000 - $230,000•Onsite

About The Position

Atoms is looking for a Robotics Systems Engineer who thrives at system-level debugging and end-to-end delivery of autonomy capabilities on real vehicles. You’ll develop, integrate, test, and deploy features for our autonomous vehicle fleet, helping bring autonomy capabilities from prototype to reliable real-world performance. This role may be hired at multiple levels, depending on experience and demonstrated scope of ownership. At more senior levels, this role will include greater ownership of autonomy features, production readiness, system-level validation, release gates, and cross-functional technical leadership.

Requirements

3+ years of professional, non-internship software development or robotics engineering experience; 3+ years or equivalent demonstrated scope for senior-level consideration.
Strong programming skills in C++ and Python.
Experience designing, building, testing, and debugging maintainable software for real-time or robotics systems.
Proven robotics engineering experience with system-level ownership, such as integration, debugging, performance tuning, field testing, deployments, or platform bring-up.
Ability to diagnose issues across software, hardware, sensors, networking, vehicle interfaces, controls, or autonomy stacks.
Experience building or using diagnostics such as structured logging, metrics, fault isolation tools, test harnesses, or fleet-level monitoring.
Working familiarity with core robotics concepts such as localization, state estimation, planning, controls, calibration, or sensor fusion.
Ability to operate in ambiguous technical environments by clarifying scope, interfaces, milestones, risks, and success criteria.
Strong communication and collaboration skills, including the ability to explain technical trade-offs to technical and non-technical partners.
Demonstrated ability to drive technical work through planning, implementation, testing, validation, and deployment.
For senior-level candidates, demonstrated ability to lead complex technical projects, define release or validation criteria, coordinate cross-functional execution, and mentor other engineers.

Nice To Haves

Experience deploying autonomy or robotics systems in the field, including deployment rotations, on-call support, safety-critical troubleshooting, or customer-site support.
Experience with one or more of the following: sensor fusion, safety systems, camera pipelines, ML-based perception, CAN or other vehicle interfaces, calibration workflows, or autonomy validation.
Experience defining release gates, validation metrics, or production-readiness criteria for safety-critical robotics or autonomy systems.
Experience managing technical triage for distributed robots, vehicles, or fielded systems.
Familiarity with robotics development infrastructure such as Linux, Git, CI/CD, simulation, test harnesses, or automated validation pipelines.

Responsibilities

Develop, integrate, and validate autonomy features, including production software, tests, diagnostics, and deployment support.
Debug system-level issues across sensors, compute, networking, controls, vehicle interfaces, and autonomy software using logs, metrics, and on-vehicle tools.
Support or lead technical execution for vehicle bring-up and deployments, including planning, risk identification, validation, issue triage, and coordination across teams.
Define and improve diagnostics, validation criteria, release gates, and metrics for production readiness.
Support field and track testing, including hands-on vehicle debugging and periodic travel to test facilities or deployment hubs.
Bring up and integrate new platforms by working with hardware and integration teams on sensors, vehicle signals, calibration, and performance tuning.
Collaborate with hardware, operations, safety, and product teams to deliver robust, safe, and maintainable autonomy behavior.
At senior levels, serve as a technical owner for production readiness of major autonomy capabilities or vehicle deployments, including cross-team validation and mentoring other engineers.