Senior Robotics Software Engineer

Near Earth Autonomy; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Near Earth Autonomy in Pittsburgh, PA is seeking a Senior Robotics Software Engineer to research, design, develop, test, and deploy software for autonomous air vehicles. You will work on obstacle detection, safe landings, mission planning, and GPS-denied flight, integrating sensing and computing hardware across platforms from small quadcopters to helicopters.

Responsibilities include implementing perception pipelines, coordinating with co-developers, and validating software in Gazebo and on real

Qualifications

• Master's degree in robotics, CS, EE, ME, CE, or related field.
• Minimum five years in robotics or autonomous flight domains.
• Strong C++ for real-time robotics and sensor interfaces.
• Experience with ROS/ROS2, Gazebo, and field testing.
• Proficiency with Linux, Git, and Docker for reproducible work.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement sensing and perception software stacks for autonomous air vehicles.
• Develop obstacle detection and path planning from multi-sensor data.
• Test robotics systems in Gazebo and on physical robots in field conditions.
• Calibrate multi-sensor setups including lidars and cameras.
• Collaborate across teams using Git-based workflows and Docker environments.

Skills

C++ real-time programming

ROS/ROS2 integration

Sensor data processing

Point cloud processing

Multi-sensor calibration

Git version control

Linux environments

Docker for reproducible environments

Gazebo simulation testing

Education

Master's degree in Robotics/CS/EE or related field

Tools

Gazebo

ROS/ROS2

Git

Docker

Linux

Job description

Near Earth Autonomy seeks a Senior Robotics Software Engineer in Pittsburgh, PA to research, design, develop, refine, test, and deploy software systems for autonomous air vehicles to enable static obstacle detection and avoidance and safe landing on ground; research, design, develop, refine, test, and deploy software systems for autonomous air vehicles to enable mission planning, air traffic sensing and avoidance, flight without GPS, contingency management, and safe and precision landing on ground and on moving platforms; implement these capabilities on sensing and computing hardware and integrate them onto aerial platforms ranging from small quadcopters to helicopters; design and implement software stacks for autonomous vehicles; design and test autonomous aircraft systems using the Gazebo plugin within the Gazebo Sim simulation environment; research and implement techniques to increase algorithms' real-time efficiency; perform calibration of multi-sensor systems; and deploy and test robotics software on physical mobile robots in field conditions. Occasional local telecommuting is permitted.

Requirements

• Master's degree or foreign equivalent in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field.
• Five years of industry and/or research experience in robotics and/or autonomous flight domains.
• Experience must include: (i) design and implementation of sensing and perception algorithms and software stacks, including integrating sensor interfaces and processing data streams; (ii) point cloud and obstacle map generation from 3d sensor data and processing for obstacle detection on air or on ground; (iii) design and test of robotics systems and infrastructure using the Gazebo plugin within the Gazebo Sim simulation environment; (iv) deployment and test of robotics software on physical mobile robots in field conditions; (v) advanced object-oriented programming in C++ for real-time robotics systems, including implementation of efficient algorithms and sensor interfaces; (vi) design and implementation of robotics applications using ROS (Robot Operating System) and ROS2, including node communication, environment setup, and architectural infrastructure; (vii) software development in a Linux environment using the Git version control system to maintain packages and manage release history across distributed teams and tools using Docker for environment reproducibility; and (viii) technical support to robotics software co-developers.
• Must have knowledge of (i) RRT/RRT* path planning algorithms and integration of motion planners with robotics systems; (ii) extrinsic calibration of multi-sensor systems composed of lidars and cameras; and (iii) tools to unify data streams.
• Travel required within U.S. about 6 times per year, about 3 days per trip for flight tests and demonstrations.