Robotics Software Lead

Energize Robotics is searching for a permanent Robotics Software Lead in San Francisco, California.

In this role, you will build the software foundation for a next-generation, standalone, battery-powered legged robot designed for critical infrastructure - starting with utilities. This is the first and most important software hire at a well-funded early-stage robotics company, with the mandate to establish a clean, scalable onboard architecture and set the technical direction as the team grows.

As Robotics Software Lead, you’ll be the architect and owner of the onboard software stack—the central node that makes every module communicate reliably and on time. You’ll focus on middleware, real-time performance, and system-level architecture so perception, estimation, planning, control, and drivers work together without latency surprises. You’ll report to the VP of Engineering, start hands-on as an individual contributor, and have a path to build a team as the company scales.

Your Key Responsibilities

• Design and own the onboard software architecture and communication patterns across the stack
• Own real-time performance end-to-end, including latency/jitter budgets, profiling, tracing, and root-cause analysis
• Define and own middleware and time synchronization across sensors and compute (team leaning toward Zenoh over DDS; migrating middleware)
• Partition workloads across CPU/GPU/microcontrollers so safety-critical loops remain isolated from autonomy/AI
• Lead an upgrade of the current ROS stack to a supported release and implement a modular architecture
• Build logging and replay tooling to debug and improve field runs

Your Must-Have Requirements

• Production experience with pub/sub middleware (Zenoh or DDS)
• Real-time OS experience (profiling, tracing, latency analysis)
• Strong C++ and working knowledge of Python (Rust is a plus)
• Solid understanding of concurrency, inter-process communication, and memory management
• Experience designing a robot (or similar real-time system) software architecture through production/field deployment
• Senior-level experience

Nice-to-Have

• Legged/humanoid/mobile robot experience (standalone, battery-powered preferred)
• EtherCAT or other fieldbus implementations
• NVIDIA Jetson and onboard AI inference runtimes
• Autonomous vehicles, aerospace, or drones real-time architecture experience

Location & Package

• Location: currently Los Angeles (near LAX), with a planned move to the San Francisco Bay Area (mid-peninsula: around San Mateo/Redwood City, near Caltrain) once the funding round closes
• Work model: on-site (5 days/week once Bay Area office opens), with flexible hours and occasional work from home
• Compensation: $200,000+ base salary (final range to be confirmed) plus early-stage equity
• Start date: as soon as possible

If you want to own the architecture that brings a real robot to life in the field, apply to start the conversation.