Autonomy Engineer

About Nextpower

Nextpower is a global leader in intelligent solar tracker and software solutions, optimizing solar power plant performance worldwide. The Robotics and Autonomy team builds and deploys robotic systems that operate at scale in real solar environments, combining perception, planning, control, embedded compute, and cloud infrastructure to increase inspection capacity, improve safety, and enable scalable operations.

We are seeking an Autonomy Engineer to help accelerate the next phase of growth. This systems‑level role spans perception, planning, and control and focuses on advancing real‑world autonomy performance across the navigation stack. You will work directly on robots in the field and in test environments to ensure the system performs reliably under real‑world conditions.

• Develop and improve autonomy capabilities across perception, planning, and control.
• Get systems working on real robots, not just in simulation.
• Debug and resolve issues observed during real‑world operation.
• Build and use simulation, log replay, and data pipelines to accelerate iteration.
• Collaborate across hardware, integration, and test teams to ensure system‑level performance.

• Bachelor’s degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience in robotics, autonomy, or related fields, with demonstrated experience developing software for robotic or autonomous systems in real‑world environments.
• Strong proficiency in at least one of the following: C, C++, Python, or Rust.
• Strong experience with Linux command‑line environments, Git, and Docker.
• Strong experience with ROS2‑based systems.
• Strong problem‑solving skills and ability to debug complex system behavior.
• Hands‑on experience working with physical robotic systems.
• Coachable and able to operate effectively within a fast‑moving, collaborative team.

• Experience developing and deploying perception systems such as terrain classification, object detection, recognition, and tracking, and semantic understanding of environments.
• Model training, evaluation, deployment, and inference optimization on constrained embedded systems (e.g., CUDA, Tensor
  
  RT, ONNX Runtime).
• Designing and implementing robot control and planning systems, including low‑level path control (e.g., Model Predictive Control), path planning algorithms such as A
  * or Dijkstra’s, multi‑robot planning or coordination.
• Building sensor fusion, filtering, localization, and state estimation algorithms (e.g., Kalman Filters, EKFs, graph‑based optimization).
• Experience with simulation tools such as Gazebo and using log replay, data pipelines, and performance visualization to debug and improve systems.
• Applying CI/CD, release processes, and test‑driven development in robotics systems.
• Debugging networking, remote systems, or communication stacks in deployed environments.
• Operating and deploying systems in outdoor, field robotics environments under compute, bandwidth, and latency constraints.

We provide health care coverage, dental and vision, 401(K) participation with company matching, company‑paid holidays with unlimited paid time off, generous discretionary bonuses, life and disability protection, and more. Employees in certain positions may be eligible for stock compensation.

Pay is based on market location and may vary by experience, skills, and education. Annual salary range: $160,000 to $190,000.

Nextpower is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.