Head of Robot Behavior & Applications (Hands-On Leader)

Burro; Philadelphia (Philadelphia County); On-site; USD 160,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Early-Stage Equity

401K Plan

Unlimited PTO

Parental leave

Job summary

Burro, a leading robotics company, seeks a Director of Robot Applications and Behavior to lead the team that defines what the robot does and how people interact with it. You will shape the behavior stack, mission sequencing, and on-device AI, while ensuring practical field deployment.

The role is hands-on and strategic: you will code, review designs, hire and coach engineers, partner with Product and Field Operations, and work across Platform, SLAM, and Perception teams to deliver reliable

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
• 8+ years of professional experience building production software with a track record of systems that other teams depended on
• 5+ years managing engineers directly, including hiring, coaching, and performance management
• Experience designing systems and interfaces that other teams build on top of
• Experience shipping software on robots, autonomous vehicles, drones, or comparable physical systems
• Strong proficiency in C++ and Python
• Experience designing and debugging behavior systems under real-world conditions: partial observability, unreliable state, and failures that only reproduce on hardware
• Ability to clearly communicate complex advanced concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Willingness to travel occasionally to Burro's test farm and customer sites to see the robots working in the field

Responsibilities

• Own the technical direction of the robot behavior stack, including state machines, mission sequencing, user interactions, fault handling, and recovery
• Manage, coach, and grow the engineers on the team through weekly 1:1s, clear expectations, and honest performance conversations
• Own backend communication between robot and cloud: telemetry, command and control, and behavior when connectivity drops
• Own the operator and customer-facing UI, working with Product and design on what the experience should be
• Own expressive robot behavior, including lights, sound, and motion cues that tell people nearby what the robot is about to do
• Stay hands-on: write and review code, run design reviews, and take direct ownership of components on the team’s critical path
• Hire for the team and hold the bar, from writing the role through closing candidates
• Partner with the DevOps and QA team on build, test, and release workflows that this team depends on
• Set and track the team’s roadmap in partnership with Product, and communicate progress and tradeoffs clearly to the rest of the company

Skills

C++

Python

System design

Communication

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/Robotics/EE

Tools

ROS

Git

Linux

Job description

Burro, a leading robotics company, seeks a Director of Robot Applications and Behavior to lead the team that defines what the robot does and how people interact with it. You will shape the behavior stack, mission sequencing, and on-device AI, while ensuring practical field deployment.

The role is hands-on and strategic: you will code, review designs, hire and coach engineers, partner with Product and Field Operations, and work across Platform, SLAM, and Perception teams to deliver reliable