Software Engineer, Robotics & Autonomous Vehicles

Intramotev; St. Louis (MO); On-site; USD 90,000 - 115,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Unlimited PTO

Equity in the company

Parental leave

Job summary

Intramotev in St. Louis, MO is seeking a Software Engineer, Robotics & Autonomous Vehicles to join the Controls team.

You will develop the control system that plans trips for battery-electric railcars, ensuring safety, reliability, and real-time performance across server, network, and onboard components. You will ship features, write tests, participate in code reviews, and collaborate with Perception, Embedded, and Applications teams while supporting field testing on physical rail vehicles.

Qualifications

• Approximately 2 years of software engineering experience building working systems.
• Hands-on experience writing software that ran on or controlled physical hardware (robotics, vehicles, embedded, or real-time systems).
• Strong problem-solving ability: break down ambiguous problems and drive to a working solution.
• Solid understanding of data structures, algorithms, and maintainable systems.
• Proficiency in Python, C, C++, Rust, Go, or MATLAB/Simulink, or ability to ramp into a new system language.
• Comfort with a networked system of multiple components on ground and vehicle.
• Testing discipline: unit and integration tests with regression testing.
• Proficiency with Git in a collaborative workflow.
• Comfort working in a Linux command-line environment.
• Fluent English usage in professional context.
• U.S. Person (immigration/work visa sponsorship not provided).

Responsibilities

• Build and ship features across the full autonomous railstack, from server-side planning to vehicle execution.
• Write tests, verify behavior before shipping, and reproduce/fix bugs with regression tests.
• Engage in code reviews and collaborate with Perception, Embedded, and Applications teams.
• Support field testing and integration on physical rail vehicles.
• Maintain safety-critical software and ensure reliable real-time operation.
• Participate in design discussions and own features from early development.
• Collaborate in a team-driven environment with senior engineers.

Skills

Software engineering

Hands-on with hardware

Problem solving

Data structures & algorithms

Git proficiency

Linux command line

English fluency

U.S. Person

Tools

Python

C

C++

Rust

Go

MATLAB/Simulink

Redis

ZeroMQ

Docker

Git

Job description

About Us

At Intramotev, we build battery-electric, self-propelled freight railcars to transform logistics and bring innovation to our centuries-old rail network. We seek to liberate tons of freight from congested highways, reduce carbon emissions, and enhance transportation efficiency.

From our headquarters in St. Louis, MO, our team is working to promote industrial revitalization, save lives, and minimize the environmental impact of trucking. Find your future with us today.

Role Overview

We're hiring a Software Engineer, Robotics & Autonomous Vehicles, to join our Controls team. The team builds the control system that plans trips for our self-propelled battery-electric railcars and vehicles, keeps them safe, and drives them. The work spans the full depth of an autonomous vehicle stack: server-side modules that take a requested trip, turn it into a safe plan, dispatch it, and report status; real-time messaging between the ground and the vehicle, where each kind of message gets the right delivery guarantee (latest state only versus commands that must not be lost and must arrive in order) over Redis and ZeroMQ; the track and vehicle data the system depends on, with the version and integrity checks that keep every deployment in sync; and the onboard modules that execute the plan on the vehicle.

In this role, you'll build and ship features across that stack, working with senior engineers to break requirements into concrete tasks. You'll write tests and verify behavior before anything ships, reproduce and fix bugs down to a regression test, and give and receive code review. You'll partner closely with the Perception team to bring autonomous capabilities into the system, coordinate with the Embedded and Applications teams on the layers alongside yours, and support field testing and integration on physical rail vehicles.

This is hands-on, safety-critical robotics work. When the system says stop, several tons of moving railcar need to stop.

Why Join Us?

Your code runs on real machines. The software you write controls and informs physical vehicles carrying real freight on real rail lines. The feedback loop between your code and the physical world is short, visible, and unforgiving.

Small team, real responsibility. You'll own features from your first months, take part in design discussions early, and ship code that matters. The tradeoff is honest: fewer layers of support, more responsibility sooner.

The problem is worth working on. Freight trucking is one of the largest sources of carbon emissions and highway fatalities in the country. We're building the infrastructure that moves freight off highways and onto electric rail.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary: $90,000 to $115,000, commensurate with experience.

Intramotev offers a comprehensive benefits package for all team members, including:

• Medical coverage: We cover 100% of employee medical premiums, plus low-cost dental and vision options.

• Vacation: Full-time employees enjoy unlimited paid time off.

• Equity: Full-time employees receive equity in the company.

• Parental leave: New parents receive paid time off to spend quality time with their family.

About You: Basic Qualifications (Required Skills/Experience)

• Approximately 2 years of software engineering experience building working systems, whether in professional roles or graduate research or lab work.

• Hands-on experience writing software that ran on or controlled physical hardware (robotics, vehicles, embedded, or real-time systems), professionally or in substantial project or research work.

• Strong problem-solving ability: you can take an ambiguous, underspecified problem, break it down, reason about trade-offs, and drive it to a working solution.

• Solid understanding of data structures, algorithms, and how to design maintainable systems.

• Comfort in one or more of Python, C, C++, Rust, Go, or MATLAB/Simulink, or the demonstrated ability to ramp into a new systems language quickly.

• Comfort reasoning about a networked system of multiple components, both on the ground and on the vehicle.

• Testing discipline: you write unit and integration tests, verify behavior before it ships, and lock down every bug fix with a regression test.

• Proficiency with Git in a collaborative workflow: branching, merging, pull requests, and code review.

• Comfort working in a Linux command-line environment.

• Fluent, demonstrated use of AI-assisted development tools on real work, with a point of view on where they help and where they don't.

• Fluent in both written and verbal English.

• U.S. Person (immigration or work visa sponsorship will not be provided).

Preferred Qualifications (Desired Skills/Experience)

Candidate should have a working knowledge of one or (ideally) multiple areas listed below:

• Real-time, embedded, or onboard software, and the constraints of running on a vehicle rather than a server.

• Message-driven or distributed systems and their delivery-guarantee trade-offs (pub/sub, queues, streams; late, dropped, or out-of-order messages). Familiarity with Redis or ZeroMQ is a plus.

• A database as a source of truth, and data integrity in a distributed setting (versioning, checksums, content hashing).

• Perception, sensor fusion, localization, or GNSS/INS data, enough to build good software around it.

• Docker and containerized development workflows.

• CI/CD pipelines.

• Reading and extending an existing codebase, not only building from scratch.

• Working across disciplines with hardware, electrical, or mechanical engineers.

Our Interview Process

We evaluate depth of understanding over breadth of buzzwords. Our process includes a brief technical screen focused on fundamentals, a short technical presentation from you, and a final on-site conversation with the engineering team. We set clear expectations before each stage and aim to complete the process within three weeks.

For the presentation, we ask for a 5 to 10 minute talk on a technical topic from your own past work, professional or academic. Pick something you can go deep on: ideally a narrow part of a larger project, explained in as much depth as those 5 to 10 minutes allow.

Relocation

This position offers relocation based on candidate eligibility.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Intramotev is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, genetic factors, military/veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.

Closing

If you're passionate about robotics and autonomous vehicle software and eager to contribute to autonomous rail technology, we'd love to hear from you!