Robotics Software Engineer III - Infrastructure

ArcBest; Fort Smith (AR); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

ArcBest is seeking a Robotics Software Engineer III - Infrastructure to design and enable foundational infrastructure for autonomous robotic systems, spanning source to deployment and observability. You will create durable platforms, shared workflows, and guardrails to accelerate product teams while ensuring reliability, traceability, and compliance.

The role focuses on scalable systems, SIL/HIL simulations, model versioning, and cross-team collaboration with perception, planning, and safety

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, robotics, electrical or mechanical engineering or related field is required.
• Master’s degree or equivalent experience in robotics, autonomous systems, or distributed systems is preferred.
• 4+ years of experience in software infrastructure, platform engineering, or DevOps positions are preferred.
• Hands-on Linux and containerized environments; CI/CD and artifact management experience; familiarity with ROS/ROS2.

Responsibilities

• Design and enable shared infrastructure for end-to-end robotics software lifecycle: Source, Build, Test, Simulate, Deploy, Monitor.
• Standardize build systems and CI/CD pipelines across robotics software, embedded systems, and simulation environments.
• Define and manage artifact versioning for binaries, firmware, data, maps, and vehicle parameters.
• Establish platform standards, reference architectures, and best practices across product teams.
• Enable large-scale SIL, HIL, and regression simulation workflows.
• Integrate simulation results into CI pipelines with clear pass/fail criteria.

Skills

Linux

CI/CD

Artifact management

MLOps

ROS/ROS2

Distributed systems

Containerization

Jira automation

Bitbucket

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Robotics/EE/ME

Master’s degree or equivalent experience

Tools

Bitbucket

Jira

Job description

Job Description

The Robotics Software Engineer III - Infrastructure is responsible for designing and enabling the foundational infrastructure that supports the full lifecycle of autonomous robotic systems, from source code to deployment and field observability. This position provides high leverage across perception, planning, controls, simulation, and safety teams by delivering durable platforms, shared workflows, and guardrails that allow product teams to move quickly without compromising reliability, traceability, or compliance. The Robotics Software Engineer III - Infrastructure sits at the intersection of robotics software, DevOps, simulation, and MLOps. This position focuses on building scalable systems and standards rather than acting as a first responder for day-to-day operational issues. Success is measured by reduced friction for autonomy engineers, improved release confidence, and infrastructure becoming a competitive advantage rather than a bottleneck.

Responsibilities

• Design and enable shared infrastructure supporting the end-to-end robotics software lifecycle: Source, Build, Test, Simulate, Deploy, Monitor.
• Standardize build systems and CI/CD pipelines across robotics software, embedded systems, and simulation environments.
• Define and manage artifact versioning strategies for software binaries, firmware, configuration, calibration data, maps, and vehicle-specific parameters.
• Establish platform standards, reference architectures, and best practices used across multiple product teams.
• Enable large-scale Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL), and regression simulation workflows.
• Integrate simulation results into CI pipelines with clear pass/fail criteria and reporting.
• Support scenario-based testing, coverage tracking, and regression analysis.
• Provide infrastructure and tooling to improve correlation between simulation results and real-world vehicle behavior in collaboration with simulation and vehicle integration teams.
• Design and evolve shared infrastructure supporting the lifecycle of machine learning models used in autonomy systems.
• Enable dataset versioning, lineage tracking, training reproducibility, and model promotion workflows.
• Define standards for model packaging, deployment to vehicles, runtime monitoring, and rollback mechanisms.
• Partner with perception and autonomy teams to enable safe and performant model deployment, while domain teams retain ownership of model design and performance outcomes.
• Build and maintain reliable pipelines for deploying software and models to development vehicles, test fleets, and production systems.
• Enable vehicle-level observability through logging, metrics, and distributed tracing.
• Support rapid diagnosis of field issues and feedback loops into development, testing, and simulation environments.
• Enable traceability for safety-critical systems, including the ability to identify what software, model, and configuration ran on a specific vehicle at a given time.
• Support functional safety requirements by enabling reproducible builds, preserving validation evidence, and supporting audits and certification activities (e.g., ISO 3691-4, ISO 13849).
• Collaborate closely with Functional Safety Engineering to ensure infrastructure aligns with compliance and certification needs.
• Act as a force multiplier for autonomy engineers by reducing duplicated tooling and infrastructure maintenance overhead.
• Make pragmatic trade-offs between development velocity, system reliability, and safety requirements.
• Mentor engineers on platform usage, infrastructure best practices, and scalable system design.
• Influence technical direction across teams without direct people management responsibility.
• Other duties and projects, as assigned.

Requirements

Education:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field, required
• Master's Degree or equivalent industry experience in robotics, autonomous systems, or distributed systems, preferred

Experience:

• 4 years of experience in software infrastructure, platform engineering, or DevOps position(s), preferred

Computer Skills:

• Hands-on experience with Linux-based systems and containerized environments, required
• Experience working with CI/CD systems, build tooling, and artifact management solutions, required
• Familiar with Bitbucket and Jira automation, preferred
• Practical experience with MLOps, including dataset and model versioning and deployment pipelines, preferred
• Familiar with robotics middleware such as ROS or ROS2, preferred
• Experience supporting complex, distributed, real-time, or hardware-integrated systems, required
• Proven ability to design and maintain systems used by multiple teams and products, preferred

Additional Requirements:

• Exposure to simulation-heavy environments or systems that integrate tightly with physical hardware.
• Experience in robotics, autonomous systems, or embedded software development, preferred
• Experience with SIL and HIL testing methodologies, preferred
• Experience working in safety-critical or regulated environments, preferred
• Understanding of vehicle systems, sensors, and real-world deployment constraints, preferred

Other Details

Work Hours:

• Generally, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm with occasional irregular hours depending on workload.

Travel Requirements:

• Occasional (25%-50%) Travel may be required to support field testing and collaboration.

Compensation:

• This is a salary position paid biweekly.

About Us

ArcBest® (Nasdaq: ARCB) is a multibillion-dollar integrated logistics company that helps keep the global supply chain moving. Founded in 1923 and now with 14,000 employees across 250 campuses and service centers, the company is a logistics powerhouse, using its technology, expertise and scale to connect shippers with the solutions they need — from ground, air and ocean transportation to fully managed supply chains. ArcBest has a long history of innovation that is enriched by deep customer relationships. With a commitment to helping customers navigate supply chain challenges now and in the future, the company continues to invest in purpose-built technology such as ArcBest View™, its digital logistics platform that brings quoting, booking, shipment visibility and reporting into one connected experience.