Senior Robotics Software Engineer (Perception & Localization)

Orchard; Seattle, San Francisco (WA, CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Orchard Robotics seeks a Senior Robotics Software Engineer to invent practical, robust AI-powered perception and localization solutions for tractor-mounted camera systems. You’ll join an early team in a fast-paced environment, contributing across software and hardware areas.

Expect ownership, close collaboration with leadership, and a focus on making farming more profitable and sustainable through advanced robotics and vision systems.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience developing robotics software from the ground up.
• 4+ years of real-world industry experience in robotics, perception, or localization.
• Expertise in computer vision, stereo depth perception, pose estimation, object detection, multi-object tracking, image processing, robotics software.
• Willingness to take on multiple roles as the company grows.
• Comfort with fast-paced environments and high ownership over work.

Responsibilities

• Develop robotics software on tractor-mounted, AI-powered camera systems, including perception and localization algorithms.
• Implement intelligent systems to interpret terabytes of raw image data daily.
• Fuse sensor data (stereo depth, GNSS, etc.) to localize the camera system on a farm.
• Optimize code for fast edge computing performance (Python, C++).
• Be a generalist, supporting different parts of the software and hardware stack as needed.

Skills

Robotics software

Perception

Localization

Python

C++

Edge computing

Embedded systems

Jetson

Tools

NVIDIA Jetson

Job description

Orchard Robotics is a Series A startup backed by top VCs like Quiet Capital, Shine Capital, and General Catalyst. We're securing America’s food supply by building the AI farmer that automates our nation’s farms. We've raised over $25M in pursuit of our mission to help farmers farm more profitably and sustainably than ever before.

What We Do:

We start by building AI-powered camera systems that collect the most valuable data for farmers, telling them everything about what is growing on their millions of trees, vines, and plants, across thousands of acres of farmland.

Our state-of-the‑art AI analyzes every one of the billions of fruit across a farm. We provide accurate yield estimates, fruit counts, size projections, disease detection, inventories, bloom maps, and more! All this data lives in our cloud platform, FruitScope OS, that we've developed from the ground up to enable farmers to manage their crop with precision.

Today, our technology is trusted by some of the largest farms in the nation. We are growing fast, and have the industry-leading product. Farmers use our software every day to make critical decisions and run more efficient, profitable operations.

The Role:

In order to analyze billions of fruit on farms all year long, our advanced, tractor‑mounted camera systems have to know a.) precisely where they are, and b.) everything about the fruit they are seeing.

We are looking for a Senior Robotics Software Engineer to invent creative, practical, and robust solutions to real‑world computer vision problems relating to perception and localization.

About the role:

• Full‑time, in‑person role at our San Francisco or Seattle office
• As an early employee, you'll receive generous equity compensation
• Comprehensive Health, Vision, and Dental coverage, and we cover 100% of the premium
• We move fast, and sometimes this means staying late or working weekends
• Our team is close‑knit & highly driven, you’ll work directly with our CEO and entire team
• We’re deeply motivated by the impact we’re making – every line of code written or new system built means less food that goes to waste, and more people who are fed.

What you’ll do:

• Develop robotics software that runs on our tractor‑mounted, AI‑powered camera systems, including advanced perception & localization algorithms.
• Implement intelligent systems and processes to interpret complex, real‑world data (each system collects terabytes of raw image data every day).
• Fuse sensor data (stereo depth, GNSS, etc) to localize our camera system in a farm.
• Optimize code for fast edge computing performance (Python, C++).
• Be a generalist, supporting different parts of our software and hardware stack if needed.

What makes you a good fit:

• Hands‑on experience developing robotics software from the ground up.
• 4+ years of real‑world industry experience in robotics, perception, or localization.
• Expertise in one or more of the following areas: computer vision, stereo depth perception, pose estimation, object detection, multi‑object tracking, image processing, robotics software.
• Enthusiasm for taking on multiple roles and responsibilities as our company grows.
• You like fast‑paced environments where you have high ownership over your work.

Bonus Points:

• Experience deploying & optimizing robotics algorithms to run fast on embedded compute like NVIDIA Jetson.
• Familiarity with fusing data from GNSS, IMU, depth, and other sensors.

If you're looking to help make a positive impact in the world by building the future of farming, come join us!