Senior Robotics Software Engineer (opens in a new tab)

Monarch Quantum; San Diego, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 125,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance

401(k) with 4% employer matching

20 PTO days per year

13 paid holidays per year

9/80 work schedule

Job summary

Monarch Quantum is seeking a Senior Robotics Software Engineer to help build our robotics software foundation from the ground up. You will own end-to-end motion planning, write robust control software, and integrate with fleet management in a fast-paced startup environment.

Responsibilities include designing planners, validating plans for real hardware, mentoring teammates, and contributing to a culture of safety and quality. A strong background in C++ and ROS is essential for success.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Robotics or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years building robotics software with end-to-end motion planning or controls.
• Experience mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction beyond your own work.
• Startup or fast-paced technology environment experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Build motion and trajectory planning for pick and place tasks, including adaptive, sensor-driven motions and coordinated multi-robot sequencing.
• Develop kinematics, reachability, and motion planning for robotic manipulators, with collision-free executable plans.
• Contribute to the driver layer connecting to robot hardware and streaming commands in real time.
• Advance the stack with learning-based methods and simulation, including RL and sim-to-real training.
• Integrate robotics software with fleet management and higher-level systems.

Skills

C++ (17/20/23)

Robotics experience

Motion planning

World model robotics

Calibration

Multithreading

Windows development

TDD/CI/CD

AI-assisted coding

RL/Sim-to-real/ROS

Foxglove

Realtime systems

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Robotics

Tools

Git

ROS

CI/CD tooling

Foxglove

Job description

Join our fast-paced and passionate team as a Senior Robotics Software Engineer. As we scale, you will play a key role in building our foundation from the ground up. This is a dynamic, hands-on role for a self-starter who thrives in a fluid startup environment. You'll have the opportunity to work on cutting edge technologies, work closely with leadership, and help develop and implement engineering practices that support our mission and growth. Your key responsibilities are as follows:

• Build motion and trajectory planning for pick and place tasks, ranging from patterned and adaptive, sensor-driven motions to resource-aware sequencing that coordinates multiple robots working the same part.
• Develop kinematics, reachability, and motion planning, including inverse kinematics and trajectory planning for robotic manipulators, and validate plans so motion is collision-free and executable.
• Contribute to the driver layer that connects to robot hardware, streaming motion commands to the robot controller in real time and abstracting sensors behind clean, reliable interfaces.
• Support advancement of the stack with learning-based methods and simulation, including reinforcement learning, learned planners, and sim-to-real training, alongside classical approaches.
• Help implement and refine the robotics software stack (behaviors, motion planning, world modeling, and device control) and its integration with fleet management and higher-level systems.
• Write unit tests and validation suites to ensure motion planning and control software is reliable, safe, and robust.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including hardware and process engineers, to make sure planning and control decisions hold up on real hardware.
• Participate in code reviews, provide constructive feedback, and hold yourself and the team to strong coding and safety practices.
• Maintain clear and well-structured documentation for planning algorithms, calibration procedures, and system interfaces.
• Work independently and in a team while over-communicating with the manager, project engineer, and teammates.
• Use tenacity, patience, self-discipline, and passion for excellence to assure accuracy of execution schedule, data quality and integrity, conformance to company best practices, clarity in communication, and documentation.
• Use every opportunity to grow your own competency through mentorship, curiosity, communication, exposure, and initiative.
• This position requires access to export-controlled information. Employment is contingent upon the applicant being a U.S. person as defined by 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3).

Experience

• A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years building robotics software, with a track record of owning motion planning or controls systems end to end.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction beyond your own immediate work.
• Experience working in a startup or fast-paced technology company environment is a plus.

Skills

• Strong background in modern C++ (17/20/23), with Python experience.
• Hands-on experience with robotics, motion control, or controls software. You've built software that drives physical hardware, not just simulated it.
• Deep experience with kinematics, reachability, and motion planning, including inverse kinematics and trajectory planning for robotic manipulators.
• Worked with physical robots using a world model, with experience planning against that world model.
• Calibration experience to address sim-to-real gaps.
• Comfortable with multithreading, concurrency, and debugging systems-level behavior.
• Fluent developing and operating software on Windows, with Git.
• Familiar with solid engineering practice: some mix of TDD, unit testing, and CI/CD.
• AI literacy in modern software development, including fluency with AI-assisted coding tools and good judgment about when and how to use them to accelerate development without sacrificing code quality or safety.
• Bonus points for experience with learning-based methods or robot simulation (RL, imitation learning, sim-to-real), SLAM and navigation, or ROS.
• Experience with Foxglove is a plus.
• Realtime systems experience is a plus.

The expected annual salary range for this position is $125,000-$175,000.

As a full-time employee, you will be eligible for Monarch's comprehensive benefits package, which includes:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance
• Fidelity 401(k) plan with 4% employer matching
• 20 paid time off (PTO) days per year
• 13 paid company holidays
• 9/80 work schedule (every other Friday off)

Monarch Quantum is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, citizenship status, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, age, religion, creed, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, veteran status or any other characteristics protected under applicable federal, state and local laws.