Autonomy Engineer

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

Benefits offered by this job

Equity – stock options

Health care benefits

Flexible PTO

Job summary

BurnBot in South San Francisco is building remotely operated systems that manage prescribed fire and clear heavy fuel on challenging terrain. The team develops hardware in-house and deploys for agencies across the western U.S.

We seek engineers who can own autonomy for planning, controls, and safety across field robotics. You’ll work onsite in South San Francisco with some remote work days, contributing to a fast-paced, field-focused robotics effort that serves utility and fire management

Qualifications

• B.S. or higher in robotics, computer science, mechanical or electrical engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of autonomy work on physical robots or vehicles that operate outdoors.
• Strong C++, and Python where it helps.
• Motion planning and control for moving heavy platforms.
• State estimation with GPS/INS, odometry, SLAM, sensor fusion.
• ROS or ROS 2 in production environments.

Responsibilities

• Coverage and motion planning over real terrain with slope and obstacles.
• Controls for heavy tracked and wheeled machines on uneven ground.
• State estimation and localization where GPS is intermittent.
• Safety behavior: geofencing, fault detection, degraded modes, stopping logic.
• Supervised autonomy — operator-to-machine handoff and multi-machine coordination.
• Validation in simulation and field tests—the field is the tiebreaker.

Skills

C++

Python

Motion planning

State estimation

GPS/INS/SLAM

ROS/ROS 2

Safety-first mindset

Field debugging

Education

B.S. or higher in robotics, CS, mechanical or EE

Tools

Gazebo

Isaac

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)

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.

Requirements

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

• Off-road, agricultural, mining, or construction autonomy
• 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.

• Equity — Incentive Stock Options
• Health, dental, and vision
• Flexible paid time off

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