Principal Robotics Software Engineer

$120,000 - $150,000
Permanent

Posted on Tue Jul 2025

Location: Seattle, WA (On-site)
Salary: $120,000 – $150,000 + equity + bonuses
Employment Type: Full-time
Sector: Robotics / Ag-Tech

We’re representing a fast-moving robotics startup designing autonomous machines to solve one of farming’s toughest challenges: weeds. With early clients already using the system and production in sight, they’re now looking for a Principal Software Engineer to define and own the company’s robotics software stack from the ground up.

What You’ll Be Doing

  • Architect and build a robust, real-time, production-grade robotics software system

  • Develop embedded systems, containerized services, and real-time controls

  • Spend ~15% of your time in the field testing and debugging in real farming environments

  • Take ownership across infrastructure, perception, and DevOps

  • Work directly with the founding team in a high-autonomy, fast-feedback loop environment

Breakdown

  • 40% Core systems: real-time controls, sensor fusion, decision-making

  • 25% Embedded: hardware-software integration on constrained devices

  • 20% Infrastructure: CI/CD, Docker, deployment tooling

  • 15% Field testing: debugging under pressure (and possibly irrigation)

Must-Haves

  • Strong experience in Rust and Python

  • Deep knowledge of Linux (networking, systemd, kernel)

  • Comfort with Docker, containerization, and embedded development

  • 5+ years of building and shipping production software

  • Hardware/software boundary experience, scrappy engineering mindset

  • US Citizen or Green Card holder (no sponsorship available)

Nice-to-Haves

  • Exposure to CV/ML, distributed systems, or ag-tech environments

  • Experience in robotics, automation, or resource-constrained systems

  • Previous startup or high-autonomy engineering experience

Why Join

  • Define the software architecture from day one

  • Ship robots into the real world, not a lab

  • Get meaningful equity in a startup solving a physical, impactful problem

  • Join a small, passionate team focused on real progress over polish

If you’re tired of being one tiny part of a huge machine, and want to help build the actual machine, this could be your thing.

Contact
Oliver Porter
📧 [email protected]

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    Oliver Porter

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