Senior Robotics Software Engineer
Monarch Quantum · San Diego, California, United States · On-site
Pay: USD 125,000 – 175,000 a year
Posted Sep 28, 2026
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Join our fast-paced and passionate team as a Senior Robotics Software Engineer. As we scale, you will play a key role in building our foundation from the ground up. This is a dynamic, hands-on role for a self-starter who thrives in a fluid startup environment. You'll have the opportunity to work on cutting edge technologies, work closely with leadership, and help develop and implement engineering practices that support our mission and growth. Your key responsibilities are as follows:
Build motion and trajectory planning for pick and place tasks, ranging from patterned and adaptive, sensor-driven motions to resource-aware sequencing that coordinates multiple robots working the same part.
Develop kinematics, reachability, and motion planning, including inverse kinematics and trajectory planning for robotic manipulators, and validate plans so motion is collision-free and executable.
Contribute to the driver layer that connects to robot hardware, streaming motion commands to the robot controller in real time and abstracting sensors behind clean, reliable interfaces.
Support advancement of the stack with learning-based methods and simulation, including reinforcement learning, learned planners, and sim-to-real training, alongside classical approaches.
Help implement and refine the robotics software stack (behaviors, motion planning, world modeling, and device control) and its integration with fleet management and higher-level systems.
Write unit tests and validation suites to ensure motion planning and control software is reliable, safe, and robust.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including hardware and process engineers, to make sure planning and control decisions hold up on real hardware.
Participate in code reviews, provide constructive feedback, and hold yourself and the team to strong coding and safety practices.
Maintain clear and well-structured documentation for planning algorithms, calibration procedures, and system interfaces.
Work independently and in a team while over-communicating with the manager, project engineer, and teammates.
Use tenacity, patience, self-discipline, and passion for excellence to assure accuracy of execution schedule, data quality and integrity, conformance to company best practices, clarity in communication, and documentation.
Use every opportunity to grow your own competency through mentorship, curiosity, communication, exposure, and initiative.
Requirements
This position requires access to export-controlled information. Employment is contingent upon the applicant being a U.S. person as defined by 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3).
Experience:
A bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
5+ years building robotics software, with a track record of owning motion planning or controls systems end to end.
Demonstrated experience mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction beyond your own immediate work.
Experience working in…