Principal Robotics Engineer, Autonomous Systems

Blue River Technology; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Impactful autonomy projects

Job summary

Blue River Technology, remotely connected within the United States, seeks a principal-level engineer to lead autonomous systems for heavy construction equipment. You will steer perception, planning, controls, and safety as they apply to real-world, dirt-filled environments.

This role focuses on turning difficult autonomy problems into dependable field-ready systems, guiding cross-disciplinary teams, and delivering solutions that perform reliably in the field.

Qualifications

• Principal-level experience building autonomous robotics or vehicle systems.
• Strong understanding of perception, planning, controls, and safety for real-world robots.
• Ability to reason about uncertain, unstructured environments and nonstandard vehicle dynamics.
• Experience leading technical work across disciplines and translating unresolved research problems into engineering plans.
• Willingness to iterate quickly, investigate issues in the field, and make decisions under uncertainty.

Responsibilities

• Guide technical direction for autonomous machines that navigate, perceive, and operate in challenging construction settings.
• Develop robust perception approaches that combine multiple sensor modalities despite environmental degradation.
• Shape planning and control solutions for heavy equipment with vehicle dynamics unlike passenger cars.
• Help define safeguarding and safety behavior for autonomous operation around changing site conditions.
• Lead cross-functional technical decisions spanning robotics, machine learning, and vehicle systems.
• Move ideas from research and experimentation toward practical systems that can be evaluated in the field.

Skills

Robotics leadership

Autonomous systems

Perception

Planning

Controls

Safety

Field deployment

Unstructured env

Job description

Role overview

Provide principal-level technical leadership for autonomous systems operating heavy equipment in unstructured construction environments. The work spans perception, planning, controls, and safety for machines exposed to dirt, dust, steep grades, changing terrain, and dynamic site conditions. The role is remote within the United States and focuses on turning difficult autonomy problems into dependable field-ready systems.

Responsibilities

• Guide technical direction for autonomous machines that navigate, perceive, and operate in challenging construction settings.
• Develop robust perception approaches that combine multiple sensor modalities despite environmental degradation.
• Shape planning and control solutions for heavy equipment with vehicle dynamics unlike passenger cars.
• Help define safeguarding and safety behavior for autonomous operation around changing site conditions.
• Lead cross-functional technical decisions spanning robotics, machine learning, and vehicle systems.
• Move ideas from research and experimentation toward practical systems that can be evaluated in the field.

Requirements

• Principal-level experience building autonomous robotics or vehicle systems.
• Strong understanding of perception, planning, controls, and safety for real-world robots.
• Ability to reason about uncertain, unstructured environments and nonstandard vehicle dynamics.
• Experience leading technical work across disciplines and translating unresolved research problems into engineering plans.
• Willingness to iterate quickly, investigate issues in the field, and make decisions under uncertainty.

Benefits and work setup

• Remote work within the United States.
• Opportunity to work on autonomy for heavy construction equipment and other demanding mobile-robotics applications.