Robotics Software Systems Engineer- Arlington, VA (Hybrid

Robotics Software Systems Engineer

Location: Hybrid (3 days onsite in Arlington / 2 days remote)

Compensation: Highly competitive and including significant equity in the company. Our client is committed to working with exceptional candidates to meet compensation goals when there is a fit.

Our client is a venture-backed maritime technology company
focused on advancing maritime domain awareness and improving safety on the seas.

The company develops robotic AI-powered sensing platforms deployed on vessels worldwide
, delivering unprecedented insight into maritime environments through advanced sensor fusion and edge computing.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the organization operates as a team with staff across the United States. The culture is mission-driven and fast moving, with teams collaborating across time zones and operating at an incredible pace in demanding real-world environments.

Company snapshot:

• ~55 full-time employees
• Tens of millions in revenue and growing rapidly
• Global deployments across maritime environments

This role offers the chance to help build a cutting-edge robotics sensing platform deployed globally across maritime environments
.

You will work on systems that combine AI, robotics, infrared sensing, and distributed edge computing to deliver real-world operational impact. Engineers in this role contribute directly to technology operating in mission-critical environments where reliability, autonomy, and performance matter.

It is an opportunity to join a rapidly scaling team building advanced sensing infrastructure that enables better awareness, safety, and decision-making across the world’s oceans.

Our client is seeking a Robotics Software Systems Engineer to develop and maintain the software infrastructure behind a distributed edge sensing platform deployed across maritime environments.

This role sits at the intersection of robotics, real-time sensing, and distributed systems . Engineers in this position design software that coordinates multiple onboard sensors including infrared imaging systems (FLIR and similar), optical cameras, GPS, IMUs, radar, SDRs, and subsea acoustic sensors
.

A major focus of the role is developing reliable systems for infrared sensing and thermal imaging
, enabling detection and tracking capabilities in low-light, nighttime, and adverse maritime conditions.

You will work across the stack, from hardware-near ROS development to cloud messaging pipelines
, ensuring that sensing systems collect, process, and transmit high-value data reliably even in remote environments with constrained bandwidth.

This role is ideal for engineers who enjoy building real-world robotic systems that must operate autonomously and reliably in harsh environments
.

• Design and maintain core system software responsible for sensor control, data acquisition, and stream management across multiple sensing platforms.
• Develop and optimize software for infrared imaging systems (FLIR and similar) including sensor integration, calibration, and data capture pipelines.
• Build robotics control software for camera systems, stabilization, and automated tracking functions
  .
• Enhance inter-process communication frameworks using ROS2
  .
• Integrate and synchronize data inputs from infrared cameras, optical cameras, GPS, IMU, radar, lidar, acoustic sensors, and additional sensing technologies
  .
• Optimize data transmission pipelines to ensure reliable artifact delivery over constrained bandwidth connections such as satellite uplinks
  .
• Implement compression, serialization, and networking strategies to support long-range deployments.
• Develop and maintain software modules for the configuration and management of edge devices including SDRs, cameras, and sensing hardware
  .
• Collaborate with AI and backend teams to define data schemas, delivery pipelines, and observability frameworks for monitoring sensor and model performance.
• Build tools for local testing, diagnostics, and monitoring of deployed systems in the field.
• Improve system reliability, logging, and performance to support long-duration autonomous deployments
  .

• Bachelor’s or Master’s…