Hiring: Senior/Staff Robotics Engineer, Motion Planning Company: RoboForce Location: Milpitas, CA Job Posted Time: 2026-09-16 18:32:20 Target Skills & Keywords : C++ About the job Experience: •4+ years of relevant industry experience. Required Skills: •Architect and implement advanced local planners (e.g., optimization-based approaches like MPC, MPPI, or custom contouring control) that translate AI-generated routes into trajectories that a heavy, non-holonomic base can physically execute on uneven terrain. •Build the high-performance C++ pipelines that ingest the AI team's neural network outputs (semantic maps, learned costmaps) in real-time and convert them into deterministic mathematical constraints for the planner. •Ensure local planners dynamically adjust to real-time changes in the robot's Center of Mass caused by the lifting column and dual-arm payloads. Your trajectories must guarantee stability and prevent tipping on slopes or rough ground. •AI models hallucinate. You will build the deterministic C++ safety layer and fallback behaviors that override AI inputs if a commanded path violates physical safety constraints or if off-the-shelf SLAM tracking drops. •Architect the local planning interfaces to seamlessly pass base trajectories, velocity limits, and dynamic constraints to our upcoming Whole-Body Control (WBC) architecture, bridging the gap between base mobility and upper-body manipulation. 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. •In-depth knowledge 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 strict attention to real-time performance, memory management, and low-latency execution. You must be comfortable bridging high-latency AI outputs with hard real-time control loops. •Demonstrated success in building and deploying autonomous navigation stacks on real, physical robotic platforms in the wild. •Requires 5 days/week in-office collaboration with the teams. •Operational familiarity with Whole-Body Control frameworks, operational space control, and how mobile bases synchronize with high-DOF manipulators. •Background in detecting slip or loss of traction from proprioceptive sensor signals and adapting planning constraints accordingly. Compensation: •$160,000 - $265,000 / year Interested candidates, please apply directly through the job posting on company's career page or try via AI auto apply on this platform. Don't miss this opportunity to join a forward-thinking team!