Software Engineer

Pantograph; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Pantograph is building general models from video to real-world robots. We’re seeking a sharp generalist engineer to work on our robot software, sitting near customers and the hardware team. You’ll ship features that improve the user experience of our robots, and contribute to testing infrastructure and robot tooling.

A robotics background isn’t required; eagerness to learn, curiosity, and a focus on usable products are valued. San Francisco team is in-person.

Qualifications

• Strong generalist programmer who can jump between domains.
• Experience shipping products used by real people.
• Excellent communication with customers and teammates outside engineering.
• Curious, fast learner who cares about product usability.

Responsibilities

• Build and ship features for the core robot stack and customer experience.
• Work on internal test infrastructure and robot tooling to improve quality and reliability.
• Collaborate closely with customers and hardware teams to validate requirements.
• Contribute to fleet management and scalable robot software workflows.

Skills

Generalist programming

Shipping features to users

Pragmatic problem solving

Customer & teammate communication

AI tooling proficiency

Tools

Rust

Embedded Linux

Testing & reliability at scale

Video pipelines / networking

Job description

Pantograph is training general models that start by watching internet-scale video and end up on robots. We think the path to capable robots runs through general intelligence rather than narrow, robot-specific skills. We’re scaling simple methods across video games, real-world video, and our own fleet of affordable, durable robots.

We’re looking for a sharp generalist engineer to work on our robot software. You’ll sit close to both our customers and our hardware team. The work spans our core robot feature stack — building and shipping features that improve our customers’ experience of our robots — as well as our internal test infrastructure and robot tooling.

A robotics background is not a requirement. The ideal fit is someone eager to dive into new problems, curious and quick to learn new domains, and who cares deeply about what makes products usable.

You might be a good fit if you:

• Are a strong generalist programmer who’s comfortable jumping between domains

• Love shipping things and seeing real people use them

• Are pragmatic and you reach for the simplest thing that solves the problem

• Communicate well and enjoy working directly with customers and teammates outside engineering

• Use AI tools extremely effectively

Bonus if you’ve worked with:

• Rust (most of our stack is written in it — but a strong engineer can pick it up)

• Embedded Linux, hardware, or anything physical, like software for robots or cars

• Testing and reliability at scale

• Video pipelines, networking, or distributed systems

• Fleet management

We care much more about what you’ve built than credentials. We’re a small, fast-moving team working together in person in San Francisco.