Senior Software Engineer, Core Platforms

Bot-Auto; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Bot Auto is seeking a Senior Software Engineer, Core Platforms in Houston, TX to own the end-to-end tooling and infrastructure that powers our autonomous truck software. You will lead the C++ build and packaging toolchain, CI/CD pipelines, and Kubernetes-based infrastructure, while shaping security and reliability across cloud and edge components.

The role spans build systems, on-prem and cloud infrastructure, and backend/edge services, requiring hands-on leadership, design partner

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on software engineering experience spanning build systems, infrastructure, or platform engineering.
• Experience with C++ build and dependency tooling (CMake, Conan, or Bazel) and container build systems (Docker).
• Production experience with Kubernetes and at least one major cloud provider (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Experience designing and operating backend services, APIs, databases, and event-driven systems.
• Solid understanding of authentication, authorization, secrets management, and secure system design.
• Outstanding communication skills and a track record of cross-team collaboration in a fast-moving environment.

Responsibilities

• Design and support company-wide event-driven architecture with messaging and streaming platforms, including stream and consumer provisioning and the shared IDL/schema services depend on.
• Develop and operate API gateways that provide secure, scalable, and reliable access to internal and external services.
• Design and build backend services for artifact and resource management, fleet data, and operations — including event-driven frameworks, object storage pipelines, durable state, and distributed locking.
• Develop the on-vehicle edge services that connect trucks to cloud platforms, covering event forwarding, credential and certificate management, and fleet-wide deployment.
• Build identity, authorization, and least-privilege access across services, devices, and the fleet — RBAC, JWT issuance and verification, service principals, and SSO integration.
• Own certificate and key management, including internal PKI, mTLS between cloud and vehicle, and the secrets lifecycle and rotation.
• Own and evolve the C++ build, dependency-resolution, and packaging toolchain (Conan/CMake-based) used across every autonomy repository, including dependency solving, version constraints, and cross-context consistency.
• Design and maintain container image pipelines for development, simulation, and on-vehicle runtime images — including GPU toolchain upgrades (CUDA/TensorRT), multi-stage runtime builds, and cross-compilation to aarch64 targets such as NVIDIA DriveOS.
• Serve as a primary code reviewer and design partner across the organization; write ADRs and design specifications for decisions that cross team boundaries.
• Participate in infrastructure on-call — mitigate user-impacting issues quickly with clear communication, then follow up with durable long-term fixes.
• Mentor engineers and raise the bar on testing, documentation, and operational excellence.

Skills

C++

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Build tooling

Security

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

Docker

CMake

Conan

Bazel

AWS

Job description

Senior Software Engineer, Core Platforms

Houston, TX

Company Introduction

At Bot Auto, we are revolutionizing the transportation of goods with our cutting‑edge autonomous trucks, enhancing the quality of life for communities around the globe. With the agility of a start‑up and the wisdom of seasoned experts, Bot Auto boasts a team that has achieved numerous world‑firsts and unparalleled innovations. United by a shared vision, we create miracles and propel the future of transportation. Join us and transform your dreams into reality.

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Senior Software Engineer, Core Platforms to own the systems that carry Bot Auto's autonomous driving software from a developer's commit to a running truck. This is a deliberately broad, hands‑on role spanning build and release engineering, cloud and on‑prem infrastructure, core platform services, and the operation platforms that run our fleet — with security built into every layer. You will own the C++ build and packaging toolchain that every autonomy team depends on, the CI/CD and container image pipelines that release it, the Kubernetes platform and infrastructure‑as‑code beneath them, and the backend and edge services that connect our cloud to the vehicle. As a hands‑on technical leader, you will be a primary reviewer and escalation point for the engineering organization, and will set the standards that keep a fast‑moving codebase releasable, observable, and secure

Key Responsibilities

• Design and support company‑wide event‑driven architecture with messaging and streaming platforms, including stream and consumer provisioning and the shared IDL/schema services depend on.
• Develop and operate API gateways that provide secure, scalable, and reliable access to internal and external services.
• Design and build backend services for artifact and resource management, fleet data, and operations — including event‑driven frameworks, object storage pipelines, durable state, and distributed locking.
• Develop the on‑vehicle edge services that connect trucks to cloud platforms, covering event forwarding, credential and certificate management, and fleet‑wide deployment.
• Build identity, authorization, and least‑privilege access across services, devices, and the fleet — RBAC, JWT issuance and verification, service principals, and SSO integration.
• Own certificate and key management, including internal PKI, mTLS between cloud and vehicle, and the secrets lifecycle and rotation.
• Own and evolve the C++ build, dependency‑resolution, and packaging toolchain (Conan/CMake‑based) used across every autonomy repository, including dependency solving, version constraints, and cross‑context consistency.
• Design and maintain container image pipelines for development, simulation, and on‑vehicle runtime images — including GPU toolchain upgrades (CUDA/TensorRT), multi‑stage runtime builds, and cross‑compilation to aarch64 targets such as NVIDIA DriveOS.
• Serve as a primary code reviewer and design partner across the organization; write ADRs and design specifications for decisions that cross team boundaries.
• Participate in infrastructure on‑call — mitigate user‑impacting issues quickly with clear communication, then follow up with durable long‑term fixes.
• Mentor engineers and raise the bar on testing, documentation, and operational excellence.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience
• 5+ years of hands‑on software engineering experience spanning build systems, infrastructure, or platform engineering
• Demonstrated experience with C++ build and dependency tooling (CMake, Conan, or Bazel) and container build systems (Docker)
• Production experience with Kubernetes and at least one major cloud provider (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
• Experience designing and operating backend services, APIs, databases, and event‑driven systems
• Solid understanding of authentication, authorization, secrets management, and secure system design
• Outstanding communication skills and a track record of cross‑team collaboration in a fast‑moving environment

Preferred Qualifications

• Infrastructure‑as‑code proficiency (Pulumi, Terraform, OpenTofu, or Ansible) and GitOps delivery (Argo CD)
• Experience with workflow orchestration (Argo Workflows, Airflow) and streaming platforms (NATS JetStream, Kafka, Pulsar, RabbitMQ)
• Experience with API gateway platforms (APISIX, Kong) and observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, OpenTelemetry)
• Cross‑compilation and embedded/automotive toolchain experience (aarch64, NVIDIA DriveOS, TensorRT)
• Experience with PKI, mTLS, HSM/KMS‑backed signing, IAM, and zero‑trust architectures
• Prior experience deploying LLMs and building agentic or human‑in‑the‑loop automation
• Background in autonomous vehicle systems, robotics, or other cyber‑physical systems

As set forth in Bot Auto’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service‑connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three‑year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.