Senior / Staff Robotics Engineer, Motion Planning

The role

You will own the local mobility and safety stack for a fleet of humanoid robots. You will translate AI-generated costmaps into safe, dynamically feasible motion for robots operating on unpredictable terrain.

What you will do

• Architect and implement advanced local planners like MPC, MPPI, or custom contouring control.
• Build high-performance C++ pipelines to ingest neural network outputs and convert them into mathematical constraints.
• Ensure local planners dynamically adjust to real-time changes in the robot's Center of Mass.
• Build deterministic C++ safety layers and fallback behaviors to override AI inputs.
• Architect local planning interfaces to pass trajectories and constraints to the Whole-Body Control architecture.

Required qualifications

• Ph.D. in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field, OR an M.S. degree with 4+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Deep hands-on experience developing and tuning advanced local planners and trajectory optimization algorithms for mobile robots in complex, unstructured environments.
• Strong understanding of kinematics, vehicle dynamics, and center-of-mass constraints for top-heavy mobile robots operating on uneven outdoor terrain.
• Expertise in modern C++ (C++17/20) with attention to real-time performance, memory management, and low-latency execution.
• Proven track record of building and deploying autonomous navigation stacks on real, physical robotic platforms in the wild.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with Whole-Body Control frameworks, operational space control, and how mobile bases synchronize with high-DOF manipulators.
• Experience tuning, debugging, or filtering outputs from commercial SLAM/VIO systems.
• Background in detecting slip or loss of traction from proprioceptive sensor signals.
• Experience using CUDA to accelerate grid processing or trajectory sampling pipelines.

Benefits

• Competitive stock options/equity programs.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) plan.
• Visa sponsorship and green card support for qualified candidates.
• Lunches and dinners.
• A fully stocked kitchen.
• Regular team-building events.

About the company

RoboForce is an AI robotics company developing Physical AI–powered Robo-Labor for dull, dirty, and dangerous work. Their robots are engineered for demanding industrial environments.