Senior Motion Planning & Controls Software Engineer
Summary
Designs, implements, and tunes motion planning and controls software (primarily C++) for Onward Robotics' autonomous mobile robots and cobots used in warehouse fulfillment, making robots safe and effective around human workers. Day to day involves algorithm development, simulation and real-robot testing, Agile collaboration, and mentoring junior engineers.
Join Our Team
At Onward Robotics, we are a bold, gritty, and purposeful team with an ambitious mission to revolutionize fulfillment. Our team is driven by a client-first mentality: we aim to solve hard problems and fuel our clients’ growth with innovation. We are seeking talented individuals who will have a huge impact on both our business and our team. Join us on our mission as we move fast, think big, and have fun!
About Us
Onward Robotics delivers innovative automation technology that coordinates humans and robots as a cohesive system to revolutionize fulfillment. Our Meet Me solution combines proprietary software with person-to-goods mobile robots to increase efficiency in warehousing, distribution, and e-commerce operations. Onward Robotics provides the boost in productivity, flexibility, and speed that companies need to remain competitive and grow. Learn more at onwardrobotics.com.
Job Summary
As a Senior Motion Planning & Controls Software Engineer in our Robot Software Department, you will focus on the design and implementation of motion planning and controls software for our autonomous mobile robots, including cobots that operate directly alongside human workers. As a core team member, you will work in an Agile software development environment to improve the existing motion planning and controls software. These improvements will help make our autonomous robots more effective, reliable, and safe in uncertain and dynamic environments shared with people.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Design, implement, and maintain the motion planning and controls subsystem of autonomous robots
- Participate in requirements-driven, object-oriented software design
- Implement & deploy software in both simulation and physical targets
- Participate in an Agile development environment
- Design and tune motion planning and control behaviors for robots operating safely in close proximity to human workers, balancing throughput with safety margins
Core Competencies:
- Ability to be flexible and adaptable in a startup environment
- Good team player with great communication skills
Typical Day:
- Participate in daily stand-ups to align on priorities, blockers, and progress with the team.
- Design, refine, and implement path-planning, trajectory-generation, and feedback-control algorithms primarily in C++.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams (mechanical, electrical, and design engineers) to test localization systems on real robots, collecting sensor data and iterating quickly on solutions.
- Take ownership of assigned features or subsystems, gathering requirements, reviewing designs, and pushing updates through development, testing, and deployment.
- Review code from peers, contribute to technical discussions, and champion best practices to ensure high-quality, maintainable software.
- Troubleshoot issues uncovered during robot testing, from localization drift to real-time optimization challenges, working hands-on with hardware as needed.
- Mentor junior engineers, offering guidance on design choices, coding practices, and debugging approaches.
- Document work, update the team, and plan next steps to maintain team alignment and project momentum.