Software Engineer, Robotics Platform

Chef Robotics, Inc.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Chef Robotics, Inc. is hiring a Software Engineer, Robotics Platform to scale our fleet of robots. This on-site role in San Francisco will own the foundation layer of our robotics stack, including compute, OS, middleware, and networking.

You will design a stable base for perception and robotics algorithms and drive a greenfield platform from a clean sheet. You’ll work full-stack, from system design to low-level implementation, collaborating with senior robotics engineers.

Qualifications

• Strong experience and expertise in Linux systems.
• Proficient in C, C++ and Rust development.
• Experience with ROS 2 middleware and edge devices.
• Proven software engineering fundamentals and project delivery.

Responsibilities

• Architect and build the robotics platform foundation, spanning compute, OS, middleware, and networking.
• Develop lifecycle tooling to onboard and update robot fleets at scale.
• Lead upgrades to autonomy software OS and middleware.
• Integrate new hardware, sensors, and cameras, and monitor performance.
• Diagnose and fix low-level systems software and performance issues.

Skills

Linux systems

C

C++

Rust

Python

ROS 2 middleware

Tools

OpenCV

CUDA

Job description

About the Role

We're hiring a Software Engineer, Robotics Platform to help us scale our fleet of robots. This role is on-site five days a week in San Francisco - it's how our small, high-ownership team moves.

The robot platform is the foundation layer our entire robotics stack - and the ML models we run on the robot (our "forward-deployed" models) - runs on: robot compute, OS, middleware, and networking. You'll own it, making it a stable, performant base for our perception and robotics algorithms. The work spans everything from low-level system software to high-bandwidth sensor logging, debugging, and performance analysis, in close partnership with senior robotics and perception engineers.

Our next-generation platform is greenfield: we're taking everything we've learned from the platform running in production today and designing the next one from a clean sheet - run as an applied hypothesis experiment learn loop. You'll be central to that.

We want architects who work full-stack - from system design down to the metal - not armchair architects. Engineers who design a system and live with its low-level consequences, who feel the pain a design inflicts downstream and account for it from the start.

And while we hire you for a specific set of strengths, we won't pigeonhole you into a narrow lane. You're free - encouraged - to contribute anywhere in the company you can make it better.

What You’ll Do:

• Architect and build our next-generation robotics platform - the foundation layer our robotics stack and forward-deployed models run on, spanning compute, OS, middleware, and networking - taking the lessons from the platform in production today into a clean-sheet design.
• Build the infrastructure and frameworks that carry a robot across its whole software lifecycle - provisioning a new instance so it joins the fleet, then keeping its software updated from there on - working with manufacturing to do this at scale.
• Lead an upgrade of our autonomy software OS and middleware.
• Help integrate new robot hardware, sensors, and cameras, and monitor performance.
• Investigate, debug and fix difficult low-level systems software problems and performance, e.g. with drivers, networking, Linux configuration.

Qualifications

• Strong experience and expertise in Linux systems - building complex software in a Linux environment.
• Strong systems programming in C, C++, or Rust (Python a plus).
• Excellent software engineering fundamentals.
• Experience leading and shipping complex software projects.
• Experience deploying and managing software across networked edge devices (robot fleets, embedded systems) and/or with ROS 2 middleware - the DDS-based publish/subscribe (topics) layer that connects a robot's software components.

Nice-to-Have

• Robotics experience.
• Experience with the broader robotics tech stack, e.g. OpenCV, CUDA.
• Understanding of network and time protocols, e.g. TCP, UDP, PTP.
• Experience in systems engineering.
• Experience with basic mechatronics and electronics.
• Experience leading projects or people in a tech-lead or similar capacity.
• A Master's or PhD - not required, but we value the depth of reasoning that sustained research develops.