Sr Robotics Architect - Robotics & Drones

Aptiv • Boston, MA

3d • $170,000 - $230,000

About The Position

Aptiv is building a Robotics business focused on Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) and drones for warehouse, industrial, and adjacent markets. The Senior Robotics Architect will serve as the technical backbone of this effort, defining end-to-end software architecture for autonomy, safety, and connectivity across platforms. The role works closely with product management, hardware and SoC teams, and engineering partners to turn proofs of concept into scalable, reusable architectures deployable across customers and robot form factors. The architect also provides robotics-development expertise to product management and engineering teams.

The role owns architecture spanning sensors, perception, localization, planning, safety, and cloud connectivity; defines ROS 2, middleware, real-time OS, and Linux platform architecture; and partitions workloads between onboard compute and offboard edge or cloud services. It establishes interfaces across robotics subsystems and verifies that designs meet software requirements for performance, throughput, latency, and modeling. The architect leads technical decisions and reviews, guides teams, and collaborates on heterogeneous compute, functional safety, reliability, simulation, testing, DevOps, and integration of open-source and third-party technologies.

The role also translates customer and partner requirements into architecture and system requirements, supports proofs of concept and demonstrations, and contributes to technical roadmaps, build-versus-buy decisions, and ecosystem strategy.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical or Computer Engineering, Mechatronics, or equivalent practical experience.
• 15+ years of experience in robotics development, including at least 3–5 years in a software architect or technical lead capacity.
• Hands-on experience building and deploying software for real robots, such as AMRs, AGVs, drones, industrial arms, or similar systems.
• Deep understanding of ROS and ROS 2, including nodes, topics, services, actions, parameters, launch, and packages; understanding of DDS and its implications for ROS 2.
• Experience designing systems involving several of the following: perception and multisensor fusion; mapping and localization; planning and navigation; or real-time control loops and low-level robot interfaces.
• Solid understanding of Linux-based systems, including containerization with Docker or Podman.
• Ability to write clear architecture documents, sequence diagrams, and interface definitions for cross-functional teams.
• Embedded microprocessor experience, including operating systems, I/O drivers, or communication drivers.
• C, C++, and Python programming skills.
• Software testing and debugging experience.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience across multiple robotic applications, particularly industrial or mobile robotics in logistics, warehousing, manufacturing, or similar environments.
• Expertise in one or more robotics disciplines: perception, planning, or localization.
• Familiarity with functional safety and safety development lifecycles, including IEC 61508, ISO 13849, ISO 26262, or related standards.
• Cybersecurity experience.
• Experience with heterogeneous compute platforms, such as Qualcomm, NVIDIA Jetson, TI, or Renesas SoCs, and GPU architecture and programming.
• Experience accelerating perception or machine-learning workloads using GPUs or other hardware accelerators.
• Expertise in advanced machine learning, including development and hardware-acceleration techniques.
• Experience with simulation environments such as Gazebo, Isaac Sim, Webots, or custom tools, and scenario-based testing.
• Advanced networking experience, including CAN, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, CBRS, or 5G.
• Exposure to cloud integration, including fleet management, telemetry, remote monitoring, OTA updates, digital twins, or data pipelines.
• Experience in startup or incubation environments, building from scratch under ambiguity.

Responsibilities

• Own the overall software architecture for AMR and drone platforms, covering sensors, perception, localization, planning, safety, and cloud connectivity.
• Define platform architecture using ROS 2 and middleware, real-time operating systems, and Linux, ensuring modularity, scalability, and reuse across programs.
• Partition functionality across onboard compute, including SoCs and MCUs, and offboard edge or cloud services where appropriate.
• Define and maintain APIs and interfaces among perception, mapping and localization, planning, control, safety, and fleet or enterprise systems.
• Verify that software architecture designs meet requirements for performance, throughput, latency, and modeling.
• Lead architecture reviews and technical decisions, balancing safety, performance, cost, capability, and compute offload.
• Provide technical direction to software teams implementing autonomy, perception, and safety features.
• Mentor engineers on architectural best practices, coding standards, and robotics-system design patterns.
• Collaborate with embedded compute teams to map robotics workloads to CPU, GPU, NPU, and DSP resources.
• Architect software stacks to meet applicable functional safety standards.
• Define safety concepts and software patterns, including safety monitors, watchdogs, safe states, redundancy, and diagnostics.
• Collaborate with safety engineering on safety cases, hazard analyses, and software FMEAs.
• Drive architecture strategies for robustness, resiliency, observability, and over-the-air updates.
• Define the role of simulation in development, from algorithm prototyping through regression and scenario testing.
• Work with DevOps and tools teams on CI/CD pipelines, testing strategies including HIL, SIL, and MIL, and performance benchmarks.
• Evaluate and integrate open-source components and third-party SDKs, ensuring license compliance, maintainability, and architectural fit.
• Translate customer and partner requirements into technical architecture and system requirements.
• Support proofs of concept and demonstrations with AMR and drone OEMs and industrial automation vendors, maintaining alignment with the platform vision.
• Contribute to technical roadmaps, build-versus-buy decisions, and ecosystem strategy, including ROS 2 distributions, middleware vendors, and safety toolchains.

Benefits

• Private health care effective on the first day of employment.
• Life and accident insurance.
• Paid time off, including holidays, vacation, designated time off, and parental leave.
• Relocation assistance may be available.
• Learning and development opportunities.
• Discount programs with various manufacturers and retailers.
• Recognition for innovation and excellence.
• Opportunities to give back to the community.
• Tuition reimbursement.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance.
• Flex time off.
• Eligibility to enroll in a 401(k).
• 12 paid holidays.
• Bonus eligibility.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior