Founding Software Engineer

AUTOPILOT; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Base Salary + Annual bonus potential

Health, Dental, Vision Insurance

401(k) Plan

Flexible PTO

18 Paid Holidays

Travel Reimbursement

Team offsites

Job summary

AUTOPILOT is seeking a Founding Software Engineer in Chicago to build the core platform from the ground up. This full-time, in-office role offers massive ownership and the chance to shape product, architecture, and culture with the founding team.

You’ll own cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes workloads, data pipelines, and real-world robotics integrations while shipping fast and solving hard problems. Strong ownership, startup experience, and deep expertise in GCP/Kubernetes are essential.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of software engineering experience.
• Founding or startup experience.
• Strong hands-on experience with GCP (GKE, Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, IAM).
• Deep experience with Kubernetes: deploy, operate, scale production workloads.
• Ability to design distributed systems built to scale.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and own cloud infrastructure from 0 to 1.
• Architect and operate Kubernetes workloads for fleet orchestration and real-time communication.
• Build scalable backend services and data pipelines connecting software to real-world robotics.
• Design for scale from a few robots to fleets across sites.
• Own reliability, observability, and deployment infrastructure.

Skills

Ownership mindset

Shipping production software

Startup experience

Ambiguity tolerance

Product and engineering judgment

Strong communication

Tools

GCP (GKE, Cloud Run, Pub/Sub)

Kubernetes

Distributed systems design

Cloud architectures

Job description

About Us — Our Mission & Vision

Founding Software Engineer

Location: Chicago, IL Headquarters

Type: Full-time, in office

Company Stage: Early-stage / startup

This role is a full-time opportunity to make a meaningful impact as we continue building and scaling our business. We believe this position offers strong ownership, growth potential, and the chance to contribute directly to Autopilot’s next phase of growth.

About Us — Our Mission & Vision

At Autopilot, our mission is to free people up to do what they do best by automating everything else. We are building the infrastructure layer that powers autonomy in motion across the physical world — including sports, fitness, logistics, healthcare, and more. Our systems help robots move, record, deliver, train, and connect in real-world environments that have historically lacked modern tooling. Our values are simple and non-negotiable: Do Good. Have Fun. Make Money. We believe these are mutually reinforcing, and we work hard to uphold them as we grow.

We move fast, operate scrappy, and care deeply about building something that works.

Benefits

You will be eligible to participate in company benefits and perks, which currently include:

• Base Salary + Annual bonus potential
• The total compensation range for this role is $120,000–$200,000. This range reflects total target compensation, which includes base salary and bonus potential. Where a candidate falls within the range depends on factors such as experience and skills.
• 100% Employer-covered Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401(k) — Company-administered plan
• Flexible PTO — Time off as needed, coordinated with your team
• 18 Paid Holiday Days
• Travel Reimbursement — Reimbursed in accordance with company policy, where role-related travel is required
• Team & Culture Events — Team offsites, social events, and company-sponsored activities

Benefits and policies may be updated from time to time at the company’s discretion.

The Role

We’re looking for a Founding Software Engineer to help build Autopilot from the ground up. This is not a typical engineering role — you’ll be shaping the product, architecture, and culture of the company alongside the founding team. You’ll work across the stack and into the real world, building systems that directly power autonomous workflows, robotics deployments, and physical operations. If you want to build something that actually exists outside of a screen and you’re excited by speed, ownership, and ambiguity, this role is for you.

Why This Role

• Massive ownership: your work will directly shape the company
• 0 - 1 - scale: build foundational systems from scratch, then scale them across a growing robot fleet
• Real-world impact: not just dashboards — infrastructure that powers robots operating in physical environments
• Tight feedback loops: ship fast, see it work (or break) immediately
• Small, elite team: no bureaucracy, just building

What You’ll Do

• Design, build, and own our cloud infrastructure from 0 to 1
• Architect and operate Kubernetes (GKE) workloads for fleet orchestration, telemetry ingestion, and real-time robot communication
• Build scalable backend services and data pipelines that connect software to real-world robotics
• Design for scale: take systems from a handful of robots to fleets across many sites
• Own reliability, observability, and deployment infrastructure (CI/CD, monitoring, alerting, autoscaling)
• Ship fast, iterate constantly, and talk directly to users
• Work across the stack where needed (backend, APIs, integrations, frontend)
• Make key technical decisions that define the company’s foundation
• Partner closely with Customer Support, Robot Ops, and Product Teams
• Solve messy, real-world problems that don’t have clean abstractions

What We’re Looking For (Must Haves)

• Ability to work fast
• Proven track record of shipping production software end-to-end
• Startup or founding engineer experience
• Strong hands-on experience with GCP (e.g., GKE, Cloud Run, Pub/Sub, Cloud Storage, IAM)
• Deep experience with Kubernetes: deploying, operating, and scaling production workloads
• Experience designing distributed systems and cloud architectures built to scale
• High ownership with a strong bias to action
• Thrives in ambiguity and moves independently
• Strong product and engineering judgment
• Excited to build systems that operate in messy real-world environments
• Able to collaborate closely with hardware, ops, and product teams
• 4+ years of experience

Bonus Points

• Experience with Three.js or WebGL for 3D visualization (robot telemetry, digital twins, spatial interfaces)
• Experience scaling robot fleet infrastructure — telemetry, OTA updates, remote monitoring, fleet orchestration
• Experience with robotics, automation, or hardware-adjacent systems (ROS, edge computing, real-time messaging)
• Track record of shipping quickly and iterating from real usage