Staff Software Engineer, Software Systems

Position Overview:

The Staff Software Engineer is a key technical leader within Brain Corp's Platform team, responsible for the architecture, evolution, and performance of core software systems powering our autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). This includes ownership of the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), telemetry systems, and core C++ middleware.

This role is highly hands-on and strategic, driving the re-architecture of foundational robotics software to improve modularity, scalability, and performance. The engineer will lead technical direction across HAL and middleware layers, enabling efficient sensor integration, new hardware bring-up, and high-performance execution on embedded systems.

Working cross-functionally with hardware, autonomy and applications teams, this role will ensure that our robotics platform supports rapid innovation, robust field performance, and scalable deployment across a global fleet.

Essential Job Functions:

• Lead the technical direction and architecture of the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), ensuring modularity, scalability, and long-term maintainability.
• Drive the migration and re-architecture of HAL to support next-generation robotics platforms and evolving hardware requirements.
• Own the design and evolution of the robotics telemetry and replay systems, improving observability, reliability, and data quality.
• Lead the migration of middleware components from Python to high-performance C++ implementations.
• Architect and develop robust C++ middleware enabling efficient communication between sensors, compute, and autonomy systems.
• Integrate and bring up new hardware components, including sensors such as LiDARs, cameras, and IMUs.
• Optimize system performance across the robotics stack, including latency, throughput, memory usage, and CPU efficiency.
• Collaborate closely with hardware, apps, autonomy, and QA teams to ensure seamless system integration and deployment.
• Establish and enforce best practices in software design, code quality, testing, and documentation.
• Provide technical mentorship and leadership to engineers, guiding design reviews and complex debugging efforts.
• Contribute hands-on code to critical components while balancing long-term architectural improvements.
• Drive continuous improvement of development workflows, testing strategies, and system reliability.

Education and/or Work Experience Requirements: 

• Bachelor's or Master's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Robotics, or a related technical field.
• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Proven experience working on robotics systems, embedded platforms, or hardware abstraction layers (HAL).
• Demonstrated experience leading complex technical initiatives or driving architectural changes in production systems.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Other Characteristics: 

• Expert-level proficiency in modern C++ (C++11 or later), including multithreading, memory management, and performance optimization.
• Strong Python skills for scripting, tooling, and system integration.
• Deep understanding of hardware abstraction layers and low-level system design.
• Hands-on experience integrating sensors such as LiDARs, cameras, and IMUs into production systems.
• Strong experience with Linux-based development environments (e.g., Ubuntu).
• Experience designing and developing middleware systems or inter-process communication frameworks.
• Familiarity with communication protocols such as MQTT, or similar paradigms.
• Experience with build systems (e.g., CMake) and unit testing frameworks (e.g., Google Test).
• Proven ability to design scalable, maintainable, and modular system architectures.
• Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills in complex robotics or embedded environments.
• Experience with system performance profiling and optimization (CPU, memory, latency, throughput).
• Proficiency with version control systems such as Git.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to provide technical leadership and mentorship without direct management responsibility.

Things that Make a Difference: 

• Experience with Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) or similar robotic systems.
• Prior experience leading or contributing to large-scale system re-architecture or migration efforts.
• Experience designing or improving telemetry and observability systems.
• Familiarity with custom middleware architectures (non-ROS environments).
• Background in real-time or near-real-time systems.
• Experience working at the intersection of hardware and software integration.
• Passion for robotics, automation, and building high-performance, scalable systems.

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Essential functions may require maintaining the physical condition necessary for sitting, walking or standing for periods of time; operating a computer and keyboard; use of hands to finger and grasp; talk and hear at normal room levels; visual acuity to determine the accuracy, neatness, and thoroughness of the work assigned or to make general observations of facilities or structures; push or pull up to 20 pounds.

Salary Range:

The anticipated salary range for candidates who will work in San Diego, California is $143,569  to $175,473. The final salary offered to a successful candidate will be dependent on several factors that may include but are not limited to the type and length of experience within the job, type and length of experience within the industry, education, etc. Brain Corp is a multi-state employer and this salary range may not reflect positions that work in other states.

In addition to base pay, our competitive total rewards package consists of:

• A discretionary annual target bonus
• Stock options
• 401(k) plan with match (no waiting period and immediate vesting)
• Comprehensive suite of insurance benefits for employees (and their families) to include a variety of medical plan options (including an HSA with employer contribution), dental, vision, life and disability insurance, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), Legal/Identity support plans, pet insurance.
• Access to Flexible Spending Accounts (Medical and Dependent Care)
• Generous paid time off including flexible vacation, Paid Sick Leave, time off for volunteering in the community, 10 paid company holidays, and a winter company shutdown

Additional Perks include:

• Daily on-site lunch available in the San Diego office
• On-campus gym including pool and tennis courts in the San Diego office
• Opportunities to connect with colleagues including monthly game nights, hikes, wellness challenges, and community events 
• Internal continuous learning events 
• Opportunities to share your own interests and hobbies with the Company