Software Engineer

Verne; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free meals vouchers

Hardware access

Health benefits

PTO

Job summary

Verne Robotics is looking for a Software Engineer to design and build the core systems powering its robots in the real world. This hands-on role spans the full robotics software stack, from low-level drivers to large-scale policy pipelines and reliable production features for customer deployments.

You’ll collaborate closely with hardware, machine learning, and product teams, own projects end-to-end, and ship edge-friendly software that demonstrates tangible customer value on-site in the San

Qualifications

• B.S., M.S., Ph.D. in CS or related fields.
• Strong programming skills in Python (production-ready code).
• Solid experience with PyTorch and modern ML workflows
• Systems engineering skills (networking, concurrency, performance)
• At least 3 years of full-time work experience for candidates with a B.S., 1 year for M.S. or Ph.D. candidates.
• Experience with robotic arms, embedded systems (e.g., Arduinos, motors)

Responsibilities

• Build and optimize robotics software in Python and C++, spanning device drivers, control interfaces, and high-level APIs.
• Integrate and deploy ML policies (PyTorch) into visuomotor control loops, with edge inference.
• Design and test training pipelines for policy learning across large multimodal datasets.
• Develop infrastructure for teleoperation and autonomy, including real-time data streaming and WebRTC.
• Prototype new robot capabilities with hardware/research teams, turning ideas into production features.
• Systematically evaluate policies through lab trials and live proofs of concept, measuring performance and safety at scale.
• Contribute to cloud + edge scaling (AWS data ingestion, IoT fleet management, distributed training/serving).
• Take ownership of projects end-to-end from design to deployment in the field.
• Work cross-functionally with product, research, and customer teams to align systems with real-world needs.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

Systems engineering

Robotics arms

Embedded systems

Education

B.S., M.S., Ph.D. in CS or related fields

Tools

AWS

WebRTC

IoT

Job description

Company Overview

Verne is building physical AI to make physical work as scalable as software and bring general-purpose robots to every business. We develop robots, foundation models, and the tools that turn them into reliable industrial deployments.

Our open-weight world action model, Verne V0.5, brings together video and action learning. Alongside it, we build data and training systems, a fine-tuning platform, and inference and control software. Our work is grounded in real deployments: learning new tasks efficiently, adapting to different environments, and operating reliably in production.

The Role

We’re looking for a talented Software Engineer to design and build the core systems that power Verne’s robots in the real world. This is a hands-on role where your work will directly translate to physical robots performing customer-critical tasks. You’ll work across the full robotics software stack, from low-level sensor and actuator interfaces, to deploying large-scale policy learning pipelines, to shipping reliable features that customers depend on. Beyond just writing code, you’ll help design solutions, lead engineering efforts, and think cross-functionally to bridge hardware, machine learning, and product requirements.

What You’ll Do

• Build and optimize robotics software in Python and C++, spanning device drivers, control interfaces, and high-level APIs that power real-world deployments.

• Integrate and deploy ML policies (PyTorch) into visuomotor control loops, ensuring efficient inference on edge hardware.

• Design and test training pipelines for policy learning, including dataset preparation, augmentation, and scaling across massive multi-modal datasets (video, teleop trajectories, sensor streams).

• Develop infrastructure for teleoperation and autonomy, including real-time data streaming, low-latency WebRTC systems, and fallback human-in-the-loop control.

• Prototype new robot capabilities by collaborating closely with the hardware and research teams, translating experimental ideas into production-ready features.

• Systematically evaluate and test policies through lab trials and live customer proofs of concept, measuring performance, robustness, and safety at scale.

• Contribute to cloud + edge scaling efforts, including AWS-based data ingestion pipelines, IoT fleet management, and distributed training/serving infrastructure.

• Take ownership of engineering projects end-to-end, from design discussions and architecture, to implementation, testing, and deployment in the field.

• Work cross-functionally with product, research, and customer teams to ensure the systems you build align with real-world needs and unlock tangible customer value.

Qualifications

• B.S., M.S., Ph.D. in computer science or related fields.

• Strong programming skills in Python (you write clean, efficient, production-ready code)

• Solid experience with PyTorch and modern ML workflows

• Systems engineering skills (networking, concurrency, performance)

• At least 3 years of full-time work experience for candidates with a B.S. in related fields. 1 year of experience for M.S. or Ph.D. candidates.

• Experience with robotic arms, embedded systems, etc (e.g., Arduinos, motors, robot arms)

Preferred

• Experience with real-time systems (cameras, sensors, streaming)

• Hands-on with AWS services (EC2, IoT, WebRTC)

Why Join Us

At Verne, you won’t just be writing code, you’ll be shaping the future of physical AI. You’ll see your work run on real robots, in real customer environments, with immediate impact. You’ll join a small, world-class team where your contributions matter and your growth is accelerated.

Details

• Location: South San Francisco, CA (on-site required)

• Compensation: Competitive salary + meaningful equity

• Perks: Free meals vouchers, hardware access, health benefits, PTO

This is a rare chance to join a YC-backed robotics startup early and help build the foundation of the company. If you’re excited about robots, passionate about solving hard problems, and eager to see your work come alive in the real world — we’d love to hear from you.