Staff Robotics Software Engineer

OhioX; Columbus (OH); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free lunch

Flexible PTO

Health, dental, and vision coverage

Parental leave (6 weeks)

401(k) retirement plan

Employee referral bonuses

Job summary

Path Robotics is seeking a Staff Robotics Software Engineer to provide technical leadership across our robotics software stack. This hands-on role will architect and build software spanning perception, planning, controls, and execution, mentoring engineers and driving scalable software practices.

You’ll influence cross-team efforts, extend our autonomy stack, and help shape production-ready robotic capabilities for real-world manufacturing environments.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of robotics software development experience.
• Ability to architect and deliver large-scale robotics software from concept to deployment.
• Deep expertise in motion planning, perception, controls, autonomy, SLAM, localization, or robot simulation.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical architecture and development of core robotics software across perception, planning, controls, and execution systems.
• Design scalable software frameworks for reliable, maintainable, high-performance robotic applications across platforms.
• Drive motion planning, trajectory generation, and real-time control improvements.
• Develop kinematics, collision checking, reachability analysis, and optimization for manipulators.
• Mentor engineers, set engineering best practices, and raise technical bar across the org.
• Partner with ML, Perception, Hardware, and Systems teams to define long-term technical strategy.

Skills

Modern C++

Python

Linux

Multithreading

Performance optimization

Git

CI/CD

Automation testing

System architecture

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor’s / Master’s / Ph.D. in CS / Robotics / EE / Math

Job description

Build the Path Forward

At Path Robotics, we're building the future of embodied intelligence. Our AI-driven systems enable robots to adapt, learn, and perform in the real world closing the skilled labor gap and transforming industries. We go beyond traditional methods, combining perception, reasoning, and control to deliver field-ready AI that is risk-aware, reliable, and continuously improving through real-world use.

Big, hard problems are our everyday work, and our team of intelligent, humble, and driven people make the impossible possible together.

We're seeking a Staff Robotics Software Engineer to provide technical leadership across our robotics software stack and help define the next generation of intelligent robotic systems. This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who thrives on solving complex systems challenges while influencing technical direction across multiple teams. You'll architect and build software spanning perception, planning, controls, and execution, mentor other engineers, and drive the adoption of scalable software practices that enable our robots to perform increasingly complex real-world tasks. Your work will directly shape the capabilities of autonomous systems deployed in manufacturing environments today and the broader future of embodied AI.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the technical architecture and development of core robotics software across perception, motion planning, controls, and execution systems.
• Design scalable software frameworks that enable reliable, maintainable, and high-performance robotic applications across multiple platforms.
• Drive motion planning and trajectory generation for complex robotic tasks, including adaptive sensor-driven motion and multi-robot coordination.
• Develop advanced kinematics, collision checking, reachability analysis, and optimization algorithms for robotic manipulators.
• Build and optimize real-time control systems, trajectory correction, feature tracking, and visual servoing to improve robot accuracy and reliability.
• Extend our autonomy stack to support mobile robotic platforms through localization, mapping, navigation, and integrated manipulation.
• Lead development of hardware abstraction layers and real-time communication with robot controllers, sensors, scanners, and vision systems.
• Evaluate and integrate modern AI techniques, including reinforcement learning, learned planners, foundation models, and simulation to complement classical robotics approaches.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to software engineers, establish engineering best practices, and raise the technical bar across the organization.
• Partner closely with Machine Learning, Perception, Hardware, and Systems Engineering teams to define long-term technical strategy and deliver production-ready robotic capabilities
• Shape Path's long-term technical roadmap by monitoring emerging research and problem-solving techniques and championing the ones to unlock new capabilities.

Who You Are

• Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical field or equivalent industry experience.
• 8+ years developing robotics software with deep expertise in modern C++, with Python proficiency strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated experience architecting and delivering large-scale robotics software systems from concept through deployment.
• Deep expertise in one or more of the following: motion planning, manipulation, controls, autonomy, SLAM, localization, perception, or robot simulation.
• Strong understanding of real-time robotics, systems programming, multithreading, concurrency, and performance optimization.
• Experience designing software that interfaces directly with robotic hardware and operates reliably in production environments.
• Proven ability to influence technical direction, mentor engineers, and lead cross-functional engineering initiatives without direct management responsibility.
• Strong Linux development experience with Git, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and modern software engineering practices.
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into scalable engineering solutions

Why You’ll Love Working Here

• Daily free lunch to keep you fueled and connected with the team
• Flexible PTO so you can take the time you need, when you need it
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• 6 weeks fully paid parental leave, plus an additional 6-8 weeks for birthing parents (12-14 weeks total)
• 401(k) retirement plan through Empower
• Generous employee referral bonuses-help us grow our team!

Who We Are

At Path Robotics we love coming to work to solve interesting and tough challenges but also because our ideas are welcomed and valued. We encourage unique thinking and are dedicated to creating a diverse and inclusive environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.