Head of Software

Hardhat Robotics; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity stake

Healthcare benefits

Flexible PTO

State-of-the-art lab

Job summary

Hardhat Robotics is seeking a hands-on technical leader to own the full software stack for our field-ready robotics platform. You will drive architecture for real-time control, autonomy algorithms, cloud fleet management, and AI/ML pipelines while shaping the engineering culture around AI tooling as a productivity multiplier.

You will recruit and mentor engineers across embedded, autonomy, AI/ML, and simulation domains, build scalable CI/CD, observability, and remote diagnostics for live robotic

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering, with leadership experience on safety-critical systems.
• Proven track record architecting real-time or electromechanical software.
• Deep CI/CD and DevOps at scale (GitHub Actions, Bazel, Docker, Kubernetes).
• Production-level C++ and Python across embedded to cloud.

Responsibilities

• Define and own end-to-end software architecture for real-time control and autonomy stacks.
• Lead production code, reviews, and core platform components (communication middleware, drivers, abstractions).
• Oversee AI/ML model integration, edge inference design, and safety-critical tooling.
• Recruit, mentor, and scale a high-performance robotics software team.

Skills

Software engineering

Technical leadership

C++

Python

CI/CD

Communication

Tools

GitHub Actions

Bazel

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

About Hardhat Robotics

Hardhat Robotics builds field-ready robotic tools that empower skilled workers, eliminate unnecessary risk, and drive the construction industry toward a safer, smarter future. Our robots operate on active job sites with millisecond safety requirements, intermittent connectivity, and extreme physical conditions — environments that expose every weakness in a software stack.

The Role

You will own the full software stack — real-time control, sensor fusion, autonomy algorithms, cloud fleet management, simulation infrastructure, and AI/ML pipelines — and build the engineering team that ships it. This is a hands-on technical leadership role: you write production code, lead architecture reviews, and set the standard for an AI-first engineering culture where every engineer uses AI tooling as a core productivity multiplier.

What You’ll Do

Architecture & Engineering

• Define and own end-to-end software architecture: real-time control, autonomy stack, cloud services, and developer infrastructure for safety-critical construction environments.
• Write, review, and own production code — build core platform components: communication middleware, sensor drivers, device abstraction layers, and autonomy primitives.
• Lead AI/ML model integration for construction-site perception (object detection, safety monitoring, scene understanding) and own edge inference pipeline design (TensorRT, ONNX).
• Design physics-based simulation environments and digital twin infrastructure; drive HIL/SIL testing frameworks.

AI-Powered Development

• Champion AI-assisted development tools (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, agentic frameworks) team-wide. Define standards for prompt engineering, validation gates, and AI use in safety-critical code paths.
• Integrate AI-driven test generation, code review automation, and deployment risk scoring into CI/CD pipelines.
• Build an internal culture where AI leverage is a mark of craftsmanship and engineers are judged on outcomes.

Team & Operations

• Recruit, mentor, and retain engineers across embedded, autonomy, AI/ML, infrastructure, and simulation disciplines.
• Build and scale robust CI/CD, observability, and remote diagnostics infrastructure for live robotic systems.
• Own SW roadmap and prioritization with hardware, product, and field operations; spend time on active job sites.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering; 3+ years hands-on technical leadership (tech lead, principal engineer, or EM with meaningful IC contribution).
• Proven expertise architecting software for complex real-time or safety-critical electromechanical systems (robotics, autonomous vehicles, aerospace, industrial control, or comparable).
• Deep CI/CD and DevOps experience at scale (GitHub Actions, Bazel, Docker, Kubernetes, or equivalents).
• Production-level C++ and Python; comfortable across the full stack from embedded to cloud.
• Active daily user of AI-assisted development tools with genuine conviction that AI tooling is the most important productivity lever for a small engineering team. Non-optional.
• Excellent communication skills; able to make trade-offs legible to engineers and non-technical stakeholders.

Preferred

• Robotics software: ROS 2, SLAM and localization in GPS-degraded environments, sensor fusion (LiDAR, RGB-D, IMU, GNSS), motion planning.
• AI/ML: Training and deploying perception models for outdoor conditions; edge inference optimization (TensorRT, ONNX).
• Simulation: Physics-based simulators or digital twin environments (Gazebo, Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, or custom).
• AI tooling depth: configuring AI coding tools across a team, LLM-based test generation or documentation in CI.

What We Offer

• Significant equity stake — early-stage grant reflecting the scope and long-term ownership of this role.
• Competitive base salary; below-market-to-market base paired with outsized equity (discussed openly in hiring).
• Full health, dental, and vision. Flexible PTO. State-of-the-art lab. Annual L&D stipend.

Individuals seeking employment at Hardhat Robotics are considered without regards to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, or sexual orientation.