Senior Software Engineer - Robotics

Applied Intuition, Inc. is powering the future of physical AI. Founded in 2017 and now valued at $15 billion, the Silicon Valley company is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Applied Intuition services the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining and agriculture industries in three core areas: tools and infrastructure, operating systems, and autonomy. Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers, as well as the United States military and its allies, trust the company’s solutions to deliver physical intelligence.

We are an in-office company, and our expectation is that full-time employees primarily work from their Applied Intuition office 5 days a week. However, we also recognize the importance of flexibility and trust our employees to manage their schedules responsibly. This may include occasional remote work, starting the day with morning meetings from home before heading to the office, or leaving earlier when needed to accommodate family commitments. This in-office expectation does not apply to contractor positions.

About Applied Intuition Defence: Applied Intuition UK is a software and infrastructure supplier that accelerates the deployment of next-generation autonomous capabilities to the warfighter across air, land, sea, and space. A subsidiary of Applied Intuition, we deliver dual-use solutions to national security customers that build upon several years of product development and experience from commercial autonomy programs. Based in London, our seasoned defence team hails from Palantir, Anduril, SpaceX, Google, Lockheed Martin, and the UK and US Armed Services.

About the role: As a Robot Software Engineer, your day-to-day life will vary. Some days you might find yourself out in the field, integrating hardware and software directly onto vehicle platforms and pushing autonomy algorithms through live testing. Other days you'll be back in the office, deep in SIL and HIL environments, working through the complex autonomy and vehicle intelligence systems that span both hardware and software domains. And some days you'll be on-site with a customer, demoing what you built and troubleshooting in real time as they put it to the test. Every day is different, and each one moves the work forward.

As a senior member of the team, you'll also help shape how the team tackles these problems, setting technical direction, raising the bar on integration practices, and mentoring engineers as they grow into the role. Along the way, you'll touch whatever it takes to make the platform work, such as mission behaviours development, platform integration, navigation, and everything in between. You'll collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to deliver robust, scalable autonomy solutions for defense customers, drawing on computer networking, code integration, and a genuine passion for robotics. You'll build, test, and deploy your software, and then watch it actually fly.

At Applied Intuition you will:

• Lead the technical design and architecture of autonomy solutions across one or more platforms, making key trade-off decisions independently.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to junior and mid-level engineers, reviewing designs and code to maintain high engineering standards.
• Develop and adapt mission behaviour, navigation, and decision-making logic to meet the needs of diverse defense platforms and missions.
• Design and implement autonomy capabilities that are modular and reusable across different vehicle types and programs.
• Integrate and deploy autonomy solutions onto embedded Linux and other hardware platforms, including interfacing with sensors and collecting data.
• Conduct system-level setup, testing, and validation, including software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) evaluations.
• Support live flight test of autonomy software on Group 1-5 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
• Troubleshoot complex software and integration issues to ensure high reliability and performance across the stack.
• Collaborate with 3rd party UAS vendors and cross-functional teams to bring autonomy software to life on OEM and Applied hardware alike.

Who we’re looking for:

• BS or MS in Robotics, Computer Science, or related engineering field.
• 6+ years of hands-on experience working with robotic systems (hardware, software, and integration).
• Demonstrated experience leading technical design decisions on complex, ambiguous autonomy problems with minimal guidance.
• Experience developing autonomy behavior and decision-making logic (e.g., behavior trees, state machines) and/or navigation algorithms for robotic or autonomous systems.
• Experience with modern C++.
• Experience integrating autonomy/robotics products with Pixhawk autopilots (ArduPilot and/or PX4).
• Experience integrating with communication busses & protocols: UART/RS232/RS422/RS485, SPI/QSPI, I2C, Ethernet.
• Experience developing in Docker, containerized deployment environments, and using Linux-based operating systems (e.g., RHEL, Ubuntu).
• Familiarity with real-time, edge computing, and safety-critical systems operating in software-in-the-loop (SIL), hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), test & operational environments.
• Excellent communication skills and a customer-oriented project delivery mindset.

Travel Requirements: General willingness to travel for company business between our offices, as well as to customer sites.

Security Requirements: Must have ability to hold UK Security Clearance (current or previous preferred).

Applied Intuition is an equal opportunity employer and federal contractor or subcontractor. Consequently, the parties agree that, as applicable, they will abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-1.4(a), 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) and 41 CFR 60-741.5(a) and that these laws are incorporated herein by reference. These regulations prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals based on their status as protected veterans or individuals with disabilities, and prohibit discrimination against all individuals based on their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.