Robotics Software - Planning & Controls Engineer

Gritt; South San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Gritt is seeking an experienced Planning & Controls Engineer to help shape AI capabilities of our outdoor robotics platform. As an early team member, you will tackle challenging planning, trajectory generation, and real-time control for manipulation and navigation in dynamic environments.

You will own the deployment of planning and control methods to production-ready systems, collaborate across teams, and contribute to scalable simulations using tools like Isaac Sim and Gazebo on demanding

Qualifications

• MS/PhD in robotics, vision, CS, ME, EE or related engineering discipline (or equivalent experience).
• 4+ years hands-on planning/control for robotics including manipulation and navigation.
• Experience with trajectory generation, optimization, sampling, cost/reward shaping, and control.
• Proficiency in C++ and Python.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy planning and control techniques for challenging manipulation and navigation problems.
• Drive technical approach with focus on real-world deployments.
• Research and develop real-time, safe trajectories for multiple embodiments (manipulators and mobile robots).
• Develop scalable planning representations for classical and learned methods.

Job description

Gritt is an intelligent system that combines robotics and AI to build the infrastructure that pulls society forward. Gritt deploys via simple attachments to common equipment found on construction sites and autonomously performs labor-intensive tasks, verification, and planning. Gritt systems are already building critical infrastructure in the harshest outdoor environments, starting with large-scale solar. The founding team includes experts in robotics and AI from Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and MIT. Gritt is backed by Obvious Ventures, Union Square Ventures, First Round Capital, Climactic, Congruent Ventures, and other leading firms.

Role: Robotics Software - Planning & Controls

Location: SF Bay Area (in-person)

About the role

We’re looking for an experienced Planning & Controls Engineer to join our team. As an early member, you will play a pivotal role in building and shaping the AI capabilities of our robots. You will work on challenging planning/control problems around manipulation and navigation in dynamic outdoor environments. You'll need to thrive in a fast-paced startup environment where you'll wear multiple hats and have a direct impact on our product's evolution. Ideally, you have a proven track record of developing and deploying planning/control systems in production, and you're passionate about pushing the boundaries of what's possible in robotics with AI.

What you’ll get to work on

• Develop and deploy state-of-the‑art planning and control techniques for challenging manipulation and navigation problems.

• Help drive our technical approach, with particular focus on real-world deployments.
• Research and develop techniques around generating real-time, safe, efficient trajectories for multiple embodiments like robot manipulators and mobile robots.
• Develop scalable planning representations for classical and learned techniques.
• Leverage GPUs to generate and evaluate trajectories at scale.
• Enable real-time, closed-loop control leveraging classical algorithms and ML.
• Develop simulation techniques and metrics to benchmark and evaluate performance.
• Collaborate with other teams in the company.

What we look for

• M.S/Ph.D degree in robotics, vision, computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering or other engineering disciplines (or equivalent experience).

• 4+ years of hands‑on experience developing planning/control solutions for robotics applications like manipulation and navigation.
• Experience working on one or more of trajectory generation, optimization, sampling, cost/reward shaping and control.
• Experience working with robotics simulation infrastructure (e.g. Isaac Sim, Gazebo).
• Proficient with C++ and comfortable with Python.

• Should be comfortable taking ownership of tasks with light supervision.

• Must have excellent problem‑solving skills.

• Legally authorized to work in the United States.