The Principal Software Architect will lead the design of robotics software, guide architectural decisions, mentor engineers, and collaborate with researchers to create production-ready systems.
Our mission is to solve the most important and fundamental challenges in AI and Robotics to enable future generations of intelligent machines that will help us all live better lives.
We’re seeking a Principal Software Architect to define and drive the technical direction of our software across both engineering and research teams. This newly created role reflects our rapid growth and the increasing need for scalable, production-quality robotics software.
Our software engineers bring industry-grade rigor and depth to the Institute, where a strong engineering foundation is essential for advancing groundbreaking research. If you are passionate about developing technology that expands the capabilities and impact of robots, we would love to work with you. You’ll collaborate closely with researchers to design, prototype, build, and maintain robust systems that bring cutting-edge ideas to life on real robots.
As a senior individual contributor, you will shape foundational decisions around architecture, system design, and long-term platform evolution. You will partner with engineers and researchers alike to create world-class infrastructure and ensure that innovative research can be integrated reliably into our robotics platforms. This is a highly influential role that sets the tone for technical excellence across the organization.
Responsibilities
- Lead the design and architecture of complex robotics software systems
- Champion best practices for code quality, modularity, scalability, performance, and maintainability
- Collaborate with engineers and researchers to guide early experimental work and translate advanced algorithms and prototypes into reliable, production-ready software
- Provide architectural guidance and technical direction across multiple teams
- Take a hands-on approach to technical leadership, mentoring engineers and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement
- Work cross-functionally to define, refine, and evolve our long-term software strategy
- Evaluate emerging tools, frameworks, and methodologies, and drive their adoption when beneficial to the organization
Qualifications
- 15+ years of professional software engineering experience delivering high-quality, production-grade software, including 5+ years in a senior or principal architecture role
- BS or MS in Computer Science or a related technical field
- Deep expertise in systems design and software architecture for complex, distributed, or real-time systems
- Strong software development skills in modern C++ or Python
- Excellent communication, collaboration, and documentation skills
- Strong background in Linux-based platforms and development environments
- Proficiency with modern software engineering tools and practices at scale, including Git, issue tracking systems, and CI/CD pipelines
- Exceptional troubleshooting and debugging skills
- Demonstrated ability to influence organization-wide technical decisions
- Proven experience providing technical leadership, including mentoring and guiding engineering teams
Preferred
- Experience developing and debugging software on physical hardware systems
- Proficiency with real-time control systems, perception, navigation, data processing, logging, visualization, or physics simulation
- Familiarity with ROS/ROS2, hardware/software integration, and communication middleware such as gRPC or LCM
- Experience with Docker, cloud computing platforms, or other distributed systems technologies
- Background in machine learning and its application to robotics
- Experience working with robotic sensors such as IMUs, cameras, and related sensing technologies
- Experience contributing to and maintaining open-source software projects
- Familiarity with the software lifecycle in a research and development environment
- Experience working with constrained networks and optimizing systems for low-latency communication
Closing
- 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.
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.
Top Skills
C++
Ci/Cd
Docker
Git
Grpc
Lcm
Linux
Python
Ros/Ros2
RAI Institute Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA Office
145 Broadway, Cambridge, MA, United States, 02142
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