Autonomy Engineer

HorseShoe Beverage Company; South San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

BurnBot in South San Francisco is seeking an experienced robotics engineer to own autonomy across rugged outdoor machines. You will design and implement planning, control, and state estimation for fleets of field-deployed robots, collaborating with hardware teams in a fast-paced environment.

You’ll work onsite with occasional field deployments in California and neighboring states, while maintaining a mostly hybrid schedule that emphasizes hands-on testing and safe operation of complex systems.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of autonomy work on physical robots or outdoor vehicles.
• Strong C++ and Python.
• Motion planning and control experiences.
• State estimation and sensor fusion (GPS/INS, SLAM).
• ROS or ROS 2 in production environments.

Responsibilities

• Own autonomy for planning, controls, state estimation, and safety behaviors.
• Develop coverage and motion planning over real terrain with safe boundaries.
• Validate algorithms in simulation and in-field on live machines.

Skills

Autonomy on outdoor robotics

C++ programming

Python programming

Motion planning & control

State estimation (GPS/INS, SLAM)

Field debugging

Education

B.S. or higher in robotics or related field

Tools

ROS/ROS 2

Gazebo/Simulation tools

Hardware-in-the-loop testing

Job description

• Location 310 Shaw Road, Suite D,South San Francisco, CA, 94080,United States
• Base Pay $150,000.00 - $200,000.00 / Year
• Employee Type Exempt (FT)

Description

About BurnBot

Wildfire has stopped being a season. BurnBot builds the machines that get ahead of it — remotely operated systems that apply and contain prescribed fire, and platforms that clear heavy fuel on terrain that isn’t safe for crews.

Our fleet is at work today for PG&E, CAL FIRE, the U.S. Forest Service, Caltrans, fire districts, and tribal nations across California, Oregon, and Washington — treating land at up to 40x the pace of conventional methods. We’re roboticists, engineers, and career fire practitioners. Hardware we design in South San Francisco is in the dirt within weeks, and the people who designed it are usually standing next to it.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

5+ years of autonomy work on physical robots or vehicles that operate outdoors

Strong C++, and Python where it helps

Motion planning and control — you’ve tuned something that moves and weighs a lot

State estimation: GPS/INS, odometry, SLAM, and sensor fusion

ROS or ROS 2 in production, not just in coursework

A safety-first instinct and the discipline to design degraded modes before you need them

Field debugging instincts. You’ve chased a bug that only reproduced outdoors

B.S. or higher in robotics, computer science, mechanical or electrical engineering, or equivalent experience

NICE TO HAVE

Coverage path planning, or fleet coordination across multiple machines

MPC or other optimization-based control

Teleoperation and remote supervision over constrained links

Machine functional safety (ISO 13849, ISO 18497) or similar

Simulation tooling — Gazebo, Isaac, or a homegrown equivalent

HOW WE WORK

Based onsite in South San Francisco — design, build, and test all happen in one building, and being near the machines is most of the point

Flexible within that. You own your calendar: work the hours where you’re sharpest, and go remote on heads-down days.

Expect a few days a month in the field across California, Oregon, and Washington. Watching your work run on a live burn is the best part of the job.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Base salary: $150,000 – $200,000 — final offers reflect experience and demonstrated scope.

Burnbot is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including but not limited to, pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with one or more disabilities, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

If you need assistance or accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [phone] x 1010 or [e-mail].

THE ROLE

A treatment unit is unmapped, sloped, covered in fuel, and sometimes on fire. Our machines have to cover it completely, stay where they’re supposed to be, and stop when something is wrong — often with one operator supervising more than one machine.

You’ll own the autonomy that makes that work: planning, controls, state estimation, and the safety behavior around all of it.

WHAT YOU’LL OWN

Coverage and motion planning over real terrain — slope, obstacles, traversability, and treatment boundaries that must not be crossed

Controls for heavy tracked and wheeled machines on loose, sloped, uneven ground

State estimation and localization where GPS is intermittent and the canopy is against you

Safety behavior: geofencing, fault detection, degraded modes, and stopping logic you would stand next to

Supervised autonomy — the handoff between operator and machine, and everything that makes one person able to run several

Validation in simulation and in the dirt, with the field always the tiebreaker