Staff Robotics Software Engineer, Perception & AI

Exol•Wilmington, MA

6d•$149,000 - $223,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Symbotic is seeking a Staff Robotics Software Engineer to join the Perception team within its Mobile Robotics organization. This senior, hands-on role develops production-grade 3D perception systems for mobile robots and builds intelligent agents and automated workflows to improve how perception data is labeled, validated, and used to advance autonomous behaviors. The role owns perception functionality end to end, from sensor processing and algorithm development through validation and fleet deployment. The engineer will help scale reliable collision avoidance across a growing robot fleet while developing AI-driven automation that reduces manual engineering effort. The Collision group develops real-time vision, LiDAR perception, collision avoidance, and intelligent autonomy capabilities for industrial mobile robots in live distribution environments. Its work turns multi-sensor data into safe, reliable robot movement while reducing false stops and improving fleet throughput, including across new robot platforms and challenging chilled and freezer environments.

Requirements

At least 8 years of related experience or equivalent work experience.
Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical field.
Strong proficiency in Modern C++ and Python, including experience with Linux, real-time or low-latency systems, and multithreaded programming.
Hands-on experience developing perception or autonomy software for physical robotic systems or autonomous vehicles.
Strong knowledge of 3D point clouds, filtering, clustering, spatial calibration, and coordinate geometry.
Experience integrating, debugging, validating, and deploying production perception systems using ROS/ROS2 or comparable robotics middleware.
Strong technical communication and architectural leadership skills, including independently driving design reviews, documenting technical decisions, collaborating across engineering disciplines, and mentoring engineers.
Valid driver's license and ability to drive and/or fly to client locations and company headquarters; travel of up to 5%-10% may be required.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with PCL, OpenCV, Docker, and edge-compute environments.
Experience building automated data or machine learning pipelines, intelligent agents, robot learning systems, automated labeling workflows, or related autonomy capabilities.

Responsibilities

Architect, implement, optimize, and maintain real-time 3D LiDAR and point-cloud perception, filtering, calibration, and sensor-noise handling algorithms using Modern C++ and Python.
Own perception functionality end to end, from sensor characterization and technical design reviews through testing, validation, and fleet deployment.
Develop intelligent agents and automated pipelines for data labeling, dataset curation, edge-case triage, and large-scale offline regression validation.
Research and build approaches for autonomous recovery, robot learning, adaptive decision-making, and behavior generation across perception-driven robotic applications.
Partner with Controls, System Software, and System Test teams to integrate perception and autonomy decisions into core vehicle software.
Promote high engineering standards through architectural leadership, comprehensive unit and regression testing, code reviews, technical documentation, and mentoring.
Expand perception capabilities across multiple robot platforms and operating conditions, including environments with new sensor-noise and physical-condition challenges.