Principal Robotics Software Engineer, Physical AI

Analog Devices, Inc.; Wilmington (MA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 275,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

Medical, vision and dental coverage

401k

Job summary

Analog Devices, Inc. is seeking a Principal Robotics Software Engineer (Physical AI) to lead software architecture across robot systems and the infrastructure used to develop, test, and deploy Physical AI.

You will own manipulation use cases, set capabilities, and guide engineers to deliver milestones while remaining hands-on. You will design core software in C++ and Python, evolve ROS 2 pipelines, and ensure automated tests, CI, and production-grade practices.

Qualifications

• 8+ years developing software for robotics, autonomous systems, or embedded systems, including integration with physical hardware.
• Track record of delivering substantial software or systems from design into production, including integration, testing, debugging, maintenance, and reliability improvements.
• Strong C++ and Python skills, sound software architecture judgment, and hands-on experience with ROS 2 or comparable robotics middleware.
• Working knowledge of robot control, including feedback, timing constraints, actuator limits, and safe integration of learned policies with lower-level controllers.
• Working understanding of Physical AI infrastructure across data collection, simulation, training, evaluation, and deployment, with hands-on experience in part of that workflow and ability to assess reproducibility, data quality, compute needs, and latency constraints.
• Experience owning use cases: translating application needs into capabilities and success criteria, leading implementation and validation, and explaining demonstrated advantages, limitations, and integration requirements.
• Experience leading technical delivery without reporting-line authority, including scoping work, coordinating dependencies, mentoring engineers, and communicating decisions and risks across disciplines.
• Sound judgment in ambiguous R&D settings: validate assumptions, make decisions with incomplete information, and balance learning speed, maintainability, and delivery commitments.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, robotics, electrical or mechanical engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Own manipulation use cases from definition through demonstration. Define capabilities and measurable success criteria, validate differentiation against agreed baselines, and set the platform architecture and integration priorities needed to deliver.
• Turn ambiguous R&D goals into executable plans. Identify unknowns, use focused experiments to reduce risk, and make and document technical trade-offs as evidence and priorities change.
• Lead delivery across engineers with varied experience. Break milestones into scoped work with clear ownership, dependencies, integration plans, and acceptance criteria; resolve blockers and communicate progress and risks early.
• Design, implement, and review core software in C++ and Python. Evolve the ROS 2-based stack and integrate hardware, sensing, control, simulation, and learned policies through maintainable interfaces.
• Bring production-grade engineering to research software. Establish appropriate automated tests, continuous integration, hardware-in-the-loop validation, observability, and release practices, with measurable reliability and performance targets.
• Partner with AI and other software engineers to design data collection and replay, dataset versioning, simulation, training and evaluation workflows, and deployment tooling. Connect these through shared data formats and reproducible environments across robot and remote compute.
• Align software decisions with hardware, controls, and AI constraints. Address timing, synchronization, bandwidth, failure handling, and safe robot operation; distinguish exploratory prototypes from capabilities ready for sustained use.
• Develop the team through design and code reviews, practical coaching, and clear technical documentation. Facilitate constructive disagreement, adapt communication to the audience, and help engineers deliver independently.

Skills

C++

Python

ROS 2

Software architecture

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science/robotics/engineering

Tools

ROS 2 middleware

Job description

Analog Devices, Inc. is seeking a Principal Robotics Software Engineer (Physical AI) to lead software architecture across robot systems and the infrastructure used to develop, test, and deploy Physical AI.

You will own manipulation use cases, set capabilities, and guide engineers to deliver milestones while remaining hands-on. You will design core software in C++ and Python, evolve ROS 2 pipelines, and ensure automated tests, CI, and production-grade practices.