Robotics Systems Engineer

Destro AI; Sumner (WA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Destro AI is deploying an intelligent robotics software stack in live warehouse environments. This field deployment role requires direct interaction with customer operations, IT, and engineering teams to ensure successful go-lives and ongoing stability.

Candidates should have 2–6 years in systems/robotics software or related fields, be comfortable with after-hours paging, and travel on short notice. Strong Python or C, Docker, Linux, and cloud know-how are highly valued.

Qualifications

• 2–6 years in systems engineering, robotics software, backend, infrastructure, or field engineering.
• Comfortable being paged off-hours and traveling on short notice.
• Operate independently in ambiguous, high-pressure environments.

Responsibilities

• Deploy and validate Destro AI software stack in live warehouses with customer teams.
• Own production issues end-to-end during launch and stabilization, including off-hours incidents.
• Improve uptime, throughput, and reliability of deployed systems.

Skills

Python

C

Systems engineering

Robotics software

Backend engineering

Field engineering

Tools

Docker

Docker Compose

GCP

Linux

Networking

Job description

About Destro AI

Destro AI is building the intelligence layer for robotics — the system that coordinates robots, humans, and workflows across complex real-world operations. Founded by former leaders from HAI Robotics, Dexterity, and Matic, Destro is built on a simple thesis: robotics has solved movement, but not decision-making. Destro is backed by investors who have previously invested in and built companies like Brex, Figma, Notion, and Instacart.

Destro’s MothershipOS is a shared brain across all robots, unlocking complex factory and warehouse workflows. Unlike traditional systems that rely on local intelligence on each robot, Destro brings global intelligence across the entire operation. Destro recently closed its Seed round at one of the highest valuations for a robotics company at this stage, and is already deploying in production with large enterprise operators.

Schedule Expectations

This is a field deployment role, not a standard office-hours position. Warehouse operations run multiple shifts, and go-lives, incidents, and integrations are not confined to business hours.

• Regular work outside standard business hours should be expected, including nights and weekends. Go-lives are frequently scheduled during off-hours or weekend downtime windows to avoid disrupting customer operations
• This role may be paged for production issues — robot faults, network outages, server failures — outside normal hours, and is expected to respond promptly, either remotely or on-site
• Extensive travel to customer sites is required, at times on short notice
• Candidates seeking a fixed 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday schedule are unlikely to find this role a fit

What You’ll Do

Field Deployment

• Deploy and validate Destro’s software stack in live warehouses, working directly with customer ops, IT, and engineering teams
• Own production issues end-to-end during launch and stabilization, including off-hours incidents
• Improve uptime, throughput, and reliability of deployed systems

Systems & Infrastructure

• Build and maintain containerized services (Docker Compose) running on Destro-managed servers and edge devices
• Work with cloud infrastructure (GCP) for image management, versioning, and deployment tooling
• Configure and troubleshoot networking: VLANs, DHCP, internal DNS, and certificate-based service security
• Debug across the full stack: robot state faults, sensor issues, API failures, container networking, database queries, and monitoring dashboards

Who You Are

• 2–6 years in systems engineering, robotics software, backend engineering, infrastructure, or field engineering
• Comfortable being paged off-hours and traveling on short notice — see schedule expectations above
• Can operate independently in ambiguous, high-pressure environments without perfect specs
• Calm under pressure, direct with customers, strong ownership mentality

Technical Skills

Required

• Strong Python or C
• Hands-on Docker/Docker Compose experience (build, deploy, debug, image versioning)
• Linux/server administration: command line, logs, processes, systemd, firewalls
• Networking fundamentals: DHCP, DNS, VLANs, static IP reservations, TLS/certificates
• API and comm protocol experience (REST, WebSockets, MQTT)

Strongly Preferred

• AMR/warehouse automation/fleet management experience
• Cloud deployment experience, ideally GCP
• Observability tooling: Grafana, Prometheus, time-series databases
• WMS/WES/ERP integration experience

Nice to Have

• Robot task allocation/scheduling/routing
• Experience with wearables, scanners, or warehouse hardware