Seeking an accomplished and forward-thinking engineer to take on a senior technical leadership role as Lead Robotics Software Engineer.
In this position, you will guide the architecture, development, and long-term evolution of the core robotics software platform that powers our clinical robotic systems. You will be responsible not only for designing high-performance, safety-critical software across kinematics, perception, sensor fusion, and controls — but also for driving the technical decisions, engineering practices, and cross-functional alignment that enable the entire robotics organization to deliver at a higher level.
This role is ideal for an engineer who thrives at the intersection of hands-on development and team leadership, and who has a track record of building real-world robotic products with exceptional performance and reliability.
What You’ll Do
- Own the overall software architecture for robotics, setting the long-term technical direction of the full stack — including state estimation, planning, control frameworks, real-time infrastructure, and safety systems.
- Lead multiple technical workstreams, ensuring that perception, planning, controls, and systems software integrate seamlessly into a unified, high-performance platform.
- Solve complex, system-level challenges, such as timing budgets, throughput requirements, deterministic real-time execution, and robust error handling across distributed components.
- Establish engineering standards and design patterns that elevate code quality, maintainability, and long-term scalability.
- Drive technical reviews and architectural decision-making, guiding the team through trade-offs involving latency, reliability, computational footprint, and deployment constraints.
- Mentor and develop robotics software engineers, providing hands-on coaching in areas such as ROS2 best practices, real-time C++, perception/control integration, and performance optimization.
- Partner with hardware, systems, and clinical engineering to define system behavior, safety envelopes, and the requirements for mission-critical features.
- Lead validation of robotic behaviors in the lab and clinical-like environments, ensuring safe operation in proximity to patients and clinicians.
- Enable Scalable architecture design across multiple robotic platforms and Formalize the software development practices, documentation, and peer-review processes
- Advance the team’s capabilities in algorithmic sophistication, including multi-sensor fusion, motion generation, collision avoidance, and modeling — raising the bar on technical excellence.
- Stay ahead of emerging technologies (e.g., improved middleware, optimized control frameworks, new sensor stacks), making informed recommendations about where to adopt and where to innovate internally.
- Represent the robotics software organization in cross-functional leadership discussions, helping set priorities and drive clarity between engineering, product, and operational needs.
About You
- Degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical or Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- 7+ years building and delivering production robotics systems, including real-world deployment, clinical/industrial environments, or complex research-to-product transitions.
- Demonstrated experience leading architecture, design, and integration for multi-component robotic systems.
- Strong depth in one or more core areas: whole-body control, model-predictive control, multi-sensor fusion, motion planning, mapping, or collision modeling.
- Expert-level C++ skills with strong Python capability.
- Deep experience building and deploying robotics systems in ROS2, including DDS configuration, lifecycle management, real-time execution, and system bring-up.
- Proven ability to guide teams through ambiguity, resolve technical disagreements, and drive toward solutions that balance performance, safety, and delivery.
- Clear and confident communicator capable of presenting complex technical concepts to executives, clinicians, and cross-functional partners.
- Motivated by building technology that improves human outcomes, contributes to clinician workflow, and delivers precision and safety at every level.
- Authorized to work in the United States indefinitely.
Bonus Points
- Experience delivering robotics systems in medical, manufacturing, or other semi-structured domains, ideally robotic arm applications
- Familiarity with Medical compliance and/or medical device product development
- Prior leadership in building and maintaining safety-critical or real-time software systems.
- History of refactoring or evolving legacy systems into cleaner, more scalable architectures
- Familiarity with functional safety practices and certification.
- Experience building test frameworks for robotics software, including simulation-based validation, HIL/SIL testing, or CI pipelines.
Benefits
- Equity: Company stock options.
- Insurance Coverage: medical, dental, and vision insurance available
- Unlimited PTO and a full winter shutdown
- Relocation Assistance: Relocation assistance is available to move you near facility in the Columbus, OH area