Sr. Software Engineer - Ultra Mobility Vehicle
Cambridge, MA
Engineering /
Full Time /
On-site
Our mission is to solve the most important and fundamental challenges in AI and Robotics, enabling future generations of intelligent machines that will help us all live better lives.
The UMV team is focused on building the next generation of dynamic mobile robots. As a Senior Software Engineer, you will help us continue to architect and develop a world-class software infrastructure that supports our machines and controls development.
Our software engineers bring the depth and rigor of industry experience to the Institute, where a solid engineering foundation is essential for groundbreaking research. If you have a passion for developing technology that advances the capabilities and usefulness of robots, we want you on our team! You’ll work closely with other researchers to design, prototype, build, and maintain robust systems that integrate cutting-edge research into our robots.
About UMV - Ultra Mobility Vehicle (UMV) is focused on advancing robot mobility to make machines more useful in everyday life. The team combines wheels, dynamic legged systems, and whole-body behavior to reach higher levels of movement capability. Using fast terrain perception, our robots adapt to their environment by rolling over or jumping on obstacles. This research is central to developing robotic systems that move with speed, agility, and versatility.
Responsibilities:
- Lead the design and architecture of robotics software systems, especially where real-time controls performance is essential.
- Take a hands-on approach to technical leadership, mentoring other engineers, and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement within the team.
- Promote and maintain best practices for code quality, reliability, modularity, scalability, and performance.
- Be proactive in tackling continuous integration and deployment issues.
- Collaborate with researchers to translate advanced controls algorithms and experimental systems into reliable, production-ready software.
- Work with other teams across the Institute to help us define and evolve our long-term software strategy.
- Evaluate new tools, frameworks, and methodologies and drive their adoption where appropriate.
Requirements:
- 10+ years of professional experience in software engineering delivering high-quality, production-level software.
- BS or MS in Computer Science or a related field.
- Deep expertise in systems design and software architecture for complex, real-time systems.
- Strong software development skills in modern C++ or Python.
- Strong background in Linux-based platforms and development environments.
- Proficiency with modern software engineering tools and practices at scale including git, issue tracking, and CI/CD pipelines.
- Excellent troubleshooting and debugging skills, particularly in complex, real-time controls applications.
- Proven experience in technical leadership, including mentoring and guiding engineering teams.
- Excellent communication, collaboration and documentation skills
Preferred:
- Experience developing and debugging software on physical hardware systems.
- Proficiency working with real-time controls systems, perception, navigation, data processing, logging, visualization, and physics simulation.
- Familiarity with ROS/ROS2 and hardware/software integration, gRPC, LCM, or other inter-process communication middleware.
- Experience with Docker, cloud computing, or other distributed systems technologies.
- Background in Machine Learning and its application to robotics.
- Experience with robotic sensors such as IMUs, cameras, and related technologies.
- Experience maintaining and contributing to open-source software repositories.
- Experience with the software lifecycle in a research and development environment.
- Experience with constrained networks and optimization for low latency communication.
We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.
