Robotics Engineer - Perception

At TerraFirma, we’re redefining how the world moves earth for construction. Founded by former SpaceX engineers and backed by Bain Capital Ventures, TerraFirma is automating construction to make it faster, cheaper, and safer.

Job Overview

In this role, you will take hands-on ownership of projects involving robotic perception and autonomous control systems. You'll lead high-level decisions on software and sensor architecture, while directly implementing and testing algorithms on hardware. Daily work includes rapid prototyping and testing of sensor systems, as well as developing data processing pipelines to extract insights from high-bandwidth inputs like images or point clouds. You’ll collaborate with software and electrical engineers to design systems and develop, optimize, and accelerate C, C++, and Python software to meet real-time constraints. Engineers should also be prepared to tackle challenges in sensor calibration, pose estimation, localization, model training (online and offline), and new sensor integration.

Responsibilities

• Integrate multi-spectral and TOF sensors into robotic systems with real-time processing constraints

• Work with motion and trajectory planning teams to design and synthesize sensor systems to extract required signals and inputs

• Implement algorithms to efficiently detect objects of interest from incoming data streams for the purposes of collision avoidance, motion planning, and trajectory planning

• Stitch together and manipulate camera feeds and data from other sensors to effectively visualize the state of physical systems to human operators

• Develop real-time pipelines for processing, sharing, and fusing data from multiple sensor sources

• Train Machine Learning (ML) models on existing and custom datasets and support collection and labeling of data for additional training and validation

• Develop simulation and visualization tools to aid in rapid prototyping of robotic software and control algorithms

• Own the integration, calibration, and testing of sensors, both for proof-of-concept prototypes and production systems

• Lead interdisciplinary teams, mentor new employees, and actively participate in the hiring process
  

Basic Qualifications

• B.S. in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related field

• 2+ years of professional or project experience with robotic software development, involving implementation of real-time algorithms for perception and data processing pipelines

• Demonstrated experience owning large-scale deliverables, leading teams, and driving product roadmaps

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Experience working with safety-critical or real-time systems

• Experience working with embedded applications for robotics, autonomous vehicles, aerospace, automotive, or construction

• Proficiency in C++ and Python, including development for Linux-based systems and bare-metal MCUs

• Experience training, testing, optimizing, and deploying online and offline machine learning models with existing and custom datasets

• Experience implementing algorithms or pipelines for robotic systems or feedback control from scratch in C++ or Python

• Experience performing object detection on multiple data sources including multi-spectral images and point clouds

• Experience programming FPGAs for high-throughput networking, compression, or DSP

• Ability to work autonomously in a fast-paced environment

Additional Requirements

• Must be willing to work extended hours or weekends when needed to support critical deadlines or triage urgent deployment issues

• Must be willing to relocate to Austin, TX if not within commuting distance

Compensation & Benefits

TerraFirma is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The annual salary range for this role is $100,000 - $180,000. Base compensation will vary based on factors such as relevant experience and education. Salaries and leveling will be determined on a case-by-case basis if an offer is extended. Our total compensation package also includes generous equity in TerraFirma. Relocation packages are available to help cover moving costs, if applicable.