Senior Software Engineer, Robotics- Behavior & Interaction

Medium; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity participation

Job summary

Field AI in Irvine, CA is hiring a Senior Software Engineer in Behavior & Interaction to own end-to-end autonomy software, mission orchestration, and human-robot interaction. You will shepherd behavior trees, state machines, and mission planning, shipping production-grade code on real robots in challenging environments.

The role emphasizes leadership, collaboration across teams, and field validation, with a strong track record in robotics and real-world deployments.

Qualifications

• Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related field; senior-level with 5+ years shipping prod-quality software.

Responsibilities

• Own the behavior and mission layer that operationalizes autonomy into repeatable, customer-facing missions.
• Architect behavior orchestration for autonomous missions with robust fallback and recovery behaviours.
• Design and build human-robot interaction behavior and operator-facing tools (dashboards, tasking).
• Validate behaviors on physical platforms in real customer conditions and feed insights back to product.

Skills

Python

C++

ROS2

Behavior orchestration

HRI

IPC

Real-time data pipelines

Engineering leadership

Education

Master's or PhD in CS/EE/Robotics

Tools

ROS2

Job description

Irvine, CA · Engineering – Autonomy · Full time · On-site

Field AI is transforming how robots interact with the real world. We are building risk-aware, reliable, and field-ready AI systems that address the most complex challenges in robotics, unlocking the full potential of embodied intelligence. We go beyond typical data-driven approaches or pure transformer-based architectures, and are charting a new course, with already-globally-deployed solutions delivering real-world results and rapidly improving models through real-field applications

As a Senior Software Engineer in Behavior & Interaction, you will own the software systems that turn raw autonomy into finished missions. You operationalize that autonomy into repeatable, user-facing missions, design how humans task and collaborate with our robots, and deliver the insights our customers actually act on. You will architect and ship the behavior orchestration, robot interaction, and mission-to-insight pipelines that operate in some of the world's challenging industrial environments. This is a senior role for an engineer who wants to own systems end to end,and see their work run in the field.

What You Will Get To Do

• Own the behavior and mission layer that operationalizes autonomy: design and build the software that turns core autonomy capabilities into repeatable, reliable, customer-facing missions.

• Architect behavior orchestration for autonomous missions: mission definition and execution, and robust fallback and recovery behaviors for unstructured environments.

• Design and build human and robot interaction behavior.

• Validate behaviors on physical platforms in real customer conditions, then close the loop from field data back into the product.

• Lead design reviews, make architecture decisions, and raise the engineering bar across the team.

• Mentor engineers and collaborate across autonomy, perception, product, field deployment, and customer-facing teams.

What You Have

• Master's degree or PhD degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or a related technical field, and significant experience building and shipping production-quality software (senior-level; typically 5+ years, with meaningful robotics or autonomy work).

• Expert-level Python and C++, writing clean, efficient, maintainable code using modern best practices.

• Deep, hands-on experience with ROS2, designing, building, and deploying custom nodes and complex systems into production robots.

• Proven experience building behavior orchestration systems (behavior trees, state machines, task/mission planning and execution).

• Experience building human-in-the-loop or operator-facing systems: HRI, teleoperation, supervisory control, dashboards, or tasking and monitoring tools.

• Strong system design skills across APIs, inter-process communication (IPC), middleware, networking, and real-time data pipelines.

• A track record of shipping to production and iterating from real-world use, including turning field data into product improvements.

• Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail, able to lead independently while managing multiple priorities.

• Highly self-motivated, with excellent written and verbal communication skills and a strong collaborative mindset.

What Will Set You Apart

• Experience deploying robotic software in production industrial environments

• Background in robotics reasoning, planning, or HRI

• Experience with fleet management or multi-robot coordination.

• Familiarity with perception and machine learning

• Background on computationally constrained platforms and optimizing for real-time performance.

• Understanding of safety standards and compliance in robotics.

Compensation and Benefits

$160,000 – $220,000 a year

Our salary range is highly competitive with the market, but we take into consideration an individual's background and experience in determining final salary. Base pay offered may vary depending on geographic location, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience, and the Irvine, California market. In addition to competitive compensation, FieldAI offers comprehensive benefits, equity participation, and the opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge advancements in AI and robotics.

Why Join FieldAI in Irvine?

In Irvine, you will work where the robots are. Our local team builds and tests systems on real hardware with real sensors, then ships them to operate in unstructured, previously unknown environments around the world. We are solving one of robotics' hardest challenges: reliable deployment outside the lab. Our Field Foundational Models raise the bar for perception, planning, localization, and manipulation, with an emphasis on explainability and safety for real-world use.

You will collaborate with a world-class team that thrives on creativity, resilience, and bold thinking. We bring deep experience from organizations such as DeepMind, NASA JPL, Boston Dynamics, NVIDIA, Meta, Amazon, Tesla Autopilot, Cruise, Zoox, Toyota Research Institute, and SpaceX, along with a track record of field deployments and strong performance in DARPA challenge segments.

Be Part of the Next Robotics Revolution

We are looking for builders who want their work to leave the whiteboard and show up on robots. If you enjoy tackling tough, uncharted questions and working across disciplines, you will find your people here. Our teams span AI, software, robotics engineering, product, field deployment, and technical communication, all focused on shipping systems that perform in the real world.

Our headquarters is in Irvine, and we partner closely with teams there as well as colleagues across the US and across the world. Join us in Southern California and help define what dependable, field-ready autonomy looks like.

We value diverse perspectives and are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace. We evaluate candidates and employees based on merit, qualifications, and performance, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or any other legally protected status.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.