Staff Software Engineer, Robotics

Do you love designing systems that bring complex robots to life? At Cobot, we’re building the software foundation for the next generation of autonomous robotic systems — and we’re looking for a Staff Software Engineer, Robotics to help us lead the way. This is your chance to shape the architecture and practices that will enable our robots to scale, adapt, and perform in the real world.

In this role, you’ll guide software development across teams, championing best practices in design, testing, and integration. You’ll collaborate with platform, cloud, and autonomy engineers to deliver reliable, secure, and scalable solutions, while also mentoring teammates and helping refine requirements and architecture to raise the bar for engineering excellence.

This is a unique opportunity to take on a staff-level role where technical vision meets real-world impact. If you’re excited to help define how robotics software is designed, built, and delivered, we’d love for you to join us.

This role is located onsite at our Santa Clara, CA headquarters or Seattle, WA office.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, implement, integrate, and support our software stack.

• Work with the other research engineers and software engineers to design and develop maintainable and testable software.

• Work across software teams.

• Champion SDLC practices across the software teams - design and architectural principles, development guidelines, review practices, testing practices.

• Architect and implement solutions for scalability, maintainability, and performance.

• Collaborate with the Platform team and Cloud Engineers for efficient, secure and scalable software delivery to our fleet of distributed robots.

• Guide and mentor autonomy engineers on software development practices.

• Review and refine technical requirements and translate them into high-level design & plans to support the development.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.

• 8+ years of experience working within engineering teams.

• Proficiency in C++ and Python, with a readiness to learn new languages or technologies.

• Familiar with operating systems, device driver integration, real-time systems, concurrency management, and memory management.

• Experience implementing production-grade, high-reliability software on a robot or similar autonomous system.

• Professional work experience in autonomy, robotics, or adjacent field.

• Willing to occasionally travel.

• Must have and maintain US work authorization.

• Highly motivated teammate with excellent oral and written communication skills.

• Enjoy working in a fast paced, collaborative and dynamic start-up environment as part of a small team.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering or similar field.

• Proficiency with ROS or other communication systems.

• Embedded Linux or RTOS experience.

• Software architecture and system integration experience.

The base salary range for this position is $205,000 - $235,000 plus equity and comprehensive benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role and experience level. The range reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position in the noted geographic area. Within the range, individual pay is determined by additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

Cobot is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected characteristics.

To all recruitment agencies: Cobot does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our employees. Cobot is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.