Robotics Autonomy Engineer

Drobot Inc; Greenville (SC); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary + equity

Early-stage startup

Ownership and impact

Direct exposure to founding team

Job summary

Drobot Inc. in Greenville, SC is seeking a field robotics engineer to keep real robots running at customer sites in the Southeast.

You’ll debug autonomy issues on hardware and work directly with the CTO and development team to turn shop-floor observations into fixes and improvements. This role blends hands-on hardware work with software debugging, travel to customer sites, and collaboration with a small startup team.

Qualifications

• Working knowledge of ROS 2 and Linux.
• Understanding of localization and navigation basics (SLAM, sensor fusion, path planning).
• Comfortable with Python and/or C++.
• Hands-on with hardware, sensors and wiring at customer sites.
• Able to travel locally to customer sites (mostly within South Carolina).
• Valid US driver's license.

Responsibilities

• Set up, map and run our robots at customer sites in the Southeast.
• Debug localization, navigation and perception issues on the robot.
• Collect and analyse ROS bags and field data, and feed findings back to the team.
• Test and validate new software releases on hardware before they go to customers.
• Support customer demos and pilots, and be the on-site technical contact.
• Represent Drobot at customer demos and industry exhibitions.
• Help with robot builds, maintenance and hardware troubleshooting.

Skills

ROS 2

Linux

Localization

Navigation basics

Python

C++

Hardware hands-on

Willing to travel

Driver's license

Education

Bachelor's degree in Robotics/Mechanical/Electrical or related

Tools

Docker

Git

Nav2

Job description

About the role

Your code runs on real robots at real factories, not just in simulation.

You'll be the engineer closest to our robots in the field. Your job is to keep them running, and running well, at customer sites. You'll debug autonomy issues on real hardware, work directly with our CTO and development team, and turn what you see on the shop floor into fixes and improvements.

What you'll do

• Set up, map and run our robots at customer sites in the Southeast
• Debug localization, navigation and perception issues on the robot
• Collect and analyse ROS bags and field data, and feed findings back to the team
• Test and validate new software releases on hardware before they go to customersSupport customer demos and pilots, and be the on-site technical contact
• Represent Drobot at customer demos and industry exhibitions
• Help with robot builds, maintenance and hardware troubleshooting

What we're looking for

• Degree in Robotics, Mechanical, Electrical, Automotive or Computer Engineering, or similar experience
• Working knowledge of ROS 2 and Linux
• Understanding of localization and navigation basics (SLAM, sensor fusion, path planning)
• Comfortable with Python and/or C++
• Hands-on: happy to work with hardware, sensors and wiring, and to be on your feet at customer sites
• Able to travel locally to customer sites (mostly within South Carolina)
• Valid US driver's licence

Nice to have

• Experience with LiDAR, Nav2, or real autonomous vehicle and robot projects (student teams count)
• Embedded / IoT experience (Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ESP32, STM32)
• Experience with Docker, Git, or field testing

What we offer

• Competitive salary plus equity. You'd be joining early
• Real ownership: your work runs on real robots at real customers, not just in simulation
• Working directly with the founding team
• An early-stage startup: small team, fast pace, lots of ownership

About Drobot Inc.

Drobot was founded in 2021 to solve a problem every factory knows: skilled workers lose hours every week walking to find, fetch and move parts, tools and materials. We build collaborative mobile robots that take over that work and operate safely alongside people on busy, constantly changing shop floors.

Our robots are running in paid pilots with large manufacturers in the United States. We're headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, with engineering teams in Michigan and India. Our engineers include graduates of Clemson University and IITs, and every engineer who joins now shapes the product and the company.