Lead Robotics Software Engineer – Motion & Planning Expert

Monarch Quantum; San Diego, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 195,000 - 235,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance

Fidelity 401(k) plan with 4% employer‑

20 PTO days per year

13 paid company holidays

9/80 work schedule

Job summary

Monarch Quantum in San Diego seeks a Senior Principal Robotics Software Engineer to build foundational motion planning and control capabilities for a scalable robotics platform. You will own end-to-end software stacks, mentor engineers, and collaborate with hardware and process teams to ensure safe, robust operation on real robots.

You will lead advanced planning, kinematics, and world modeling efforts, while promoting test-driven development, CI/CD, and documentation across the stack.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Robotics or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of robotics software development with end-to-end ownership of motion planning or controls.
• Experience mentoring engineers and guiding technical direction beyond own work.
• Startup or fast-paced tech experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Build motion and trajectory planning for pick and place tasks, including sensor-driven and coordinated multi-robot sequencing.
• Develop kinematics, reachability, and motion planning, including inverse kinematics for manipulators.
• Own the driver layer connecting to robot hardware and real-time command streaming.
• Advance the stack with learning-based methods and simulation (RL, learned planners, sim-to-real).
• Set technical direction for robotics software stack and integration with fleet management.
• Mentor engineers, enforce code quality, and lead reviews.
• Write unit tests and validation suites for reliable, safe motion control.
• Collaborate with hardware and process teams to validate on real hardware.
• Maintain documentation for planning algorithms, calibration, and interfaces.
• Support independent and collaborative work with strong communication.

Skills

C++ (modern)

Python

Robotics

Motion planning

Kinematics

Multithreading

CI/CD

AI literacy

Mentorship

Real-time systems

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Robotics or related field

Tools

Foxglove

ROS

Git

Job description

Monarch Quantum in San Diego seeks a Senior Principal Robotics Software Engineer to build foundational motion planning and control capabilities for a scalable robotics platform. You will own end-to-end software stacks, mentor engineers, and collaborate with hardware and process teams to ensure safe, robust operation on real robots.

You will lead advanced planning, kinematics, and world modeling efforts, while promoting test-driven development, CI/CD, and documentation across the stack.