Lead Robotics Software Systems Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

We are Fresh. Together let's build the future. With partners and clients, we practice strategy, design, development, and engineering to harness the power of technology and create what's next.

Our cross-disciplinary approach blends human ingenuity and technology, empowering us to meet uncertainty with confidence. What got us to today won't get us to tomorrow, so we test our assumptions and always strive for growth. From the products we build to the partners we collaborate with, we believe people make the difference.

And we do so as a workforce representative of the communities we serve, understanding that a diverse workforce strengthens our organization. We value diversity and support a positive and welcoming environment where all of our employees can thrive.

What are we looking for?
We seek a highly skilled and motivated Systems Engineer with deep software expertise to join our robotics team. In this role, you will own the software system design for our client projects and programs, spanning the software that runs on the robot through the cloud services that operate fleets in the field. You will be the face of Fresh while partnering alongside the TPM (Technical Project Manager) and the rest of the engineering, design, and strategic delivery team.

You will play a critical role in ensuring successful project execution, on-time delivery, and quality performance of multi-disciplinary robotics programs where the software architecture carries the majority of the product risk.

What will you be doing?
A Systems Engineer in the Fresh Robotics organization is a pivotal player in driving large, integrated software and hardware projects. This position emphasizes the software side of that portfolio. You will define how a system is structured across embedded and edge compute, the robotics middleware and autonomy stack, connectivity, and the cloud and data platform that supports a deployed fleet. Fluency in the hardware realities underneath that stack remains essential, including compute selection, sensor interfaces, and the manufacturing and service constraints that shape what the software can assume.

A Fresh Systems Engineer has a high degree of expertise in understanding how to help lead multi-disciplinary teams. This includes supporting strategy and delivery of key product development phases across the scope, definition, engineering, and design phases of complex hardware and software innovation products. A Systems Engineer has experience communicating with clients to understand the key business drivers and problems being solved by the product and project, while considering the long term goals of the client and how we best fit within their roadmap.

Our programs involve deploying in the real world at scale, which means the software decisions made early carry through to field reliability, serviceability, and the cost of every update that follows. The methodology for building these systems continues to evolve, and we have adapted alongside it. Across our programs you will encounter classical automation and scripted behaviors, purpose-trained models, and learned policies, and part of this role is guiding clients toward the approach best suited to their requirements.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership:

• Act as a technical point of contact for clients, including regular updates on project progress and addressing any technical and product development plan concerns. Work closely with the project management team.
• Keep an eye on the big-picture project and client-product direction, team needs, and dependencies while understanding the detailed work plans of the contributing teams.
• Partner with the Technical Project Manager to develop and maintain project schedules, resource plans, and budgets to meet project objectives.
• Proactively identify and mitigate risks, resolving technical and programmatic issues as they arise. Work directly with the delivery team and the client to build solutions.
• Provide the technical interface between the client and the delivery team.

Software System Lead:

• Coordinate and lead the software architecture for client projects across the full stack, including embedded firmware, edge compute, robotics middleware, connectivity, and cloud services.
• Define the software system decomposition and the interfaces between subsystems, establishing how autonomy, application logic, device management, and data services fit together.
• Define system requirements, specifications, and performance metrics covering latency, throughput, availability, and update cadence. Ensure they are met throughout the development process.
• Establish the fleet and data architecture supporting OTA updates, telemetry, remote diagnostics, and observability across deployed units.
• Guide build and release strategy, including CI/CD, simulation-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop testing, versioning across mixed fleets, and staged rollout.
• Advise on the suitability of learned and model-based approaches relative to conventional software, considering latency budgets, determinism, cost, verification, and safety certification.
• Develop plans and oversee system-level testing, validation, and troubleshooting to ensure the system meets all functional and performance criteria.
• Address security, access control, data handling, and compliance requirements as part of the system design rather than as a later addition.

Team Collaboration:

• Coordinate project activities and resources by working closely with project managers, strategists, industrial designers, engineers, and other team members.
• Partner with hardware, electrical, and mechanical leads so that software architecture decisions and hardware selection inform one another throughout development.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to team members, fostering a collaborative and innovative work environment.
• Support the project estimation team in evaluating new opportunities and providing technical and timeline input.

Skills and Qualifications

• Bachelors or advanced degree in Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience developing software for products that ship, with significant experience as an individual contributor and subject matter expert.
• 3+ years of leadership experience in a software architecture or system design role for connected hardware, robotics, or embedded products.
• Demonstrated depth across multiple layers of the stack, such as embedded or edge software, robotics middleware, and cloud or backend services.
• Strong proficiency in the languages common to this work, including C++ and Python, with the judgment to evaluate designs and code produced by the team.
• Experience with ROS or ROS 2 and the architecture of autonomy stacks, including how perception, planning, and control interact.
• Experience with connected device and fleet architecture, covering OTA update mechanisms, telemetry pipelines, and remote diagnostics.
• Proficiency with modern software delivery practices, including Git workflows, containerization, CI/CD, and automated testing.
• Experience with system architecture, integration, and validation across hardware and software boundaries.
• Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to interface with clients effectively and explain technical tradeoffs to business stakeholders.
• Proficiency with industry-standard project management tools and methodologies.
• Exceptional problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Experience delivering multiple large-scale industrial, enterprise, or consumer-facing products successfully, on schedule, and on budget.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a consulting, agency, or client-facing product development environment.
• Proven experience in Product Management or Product Ownership.
• Familiarity with applied AI in robotics, including computer vision pipelines, vision foundation models, or learned policies, and the judgment to assess where each is appropriate.
• Experience with simulation and sim-to-real workflows using tools such as Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, or Gazebo.
• Experience with real-time or deterministic systems programming and the constraints of safety-relevant software.
• Familiarity with functional safety and regulatory frameworks relevant to robotics and connected devices, such as ISO 13849, ISO 10218, IEC 62443, or UL 3300.
• Experience with cloud platforms and IoT services, including MQTT and device management at fleet scale.
• Experience with edge compute platforms such as NVIDIA Jetson, and the tradeoffs of deploying software to constrained hardware.
• Experience building and operating systems that remain serviceable and supportable years after deployment.
• Experience leading or mentoring engineering teams in a professional or consulting context.

For a Washington-State-based role, the base salary hiring range for this position is $150,000 to $180,000. Compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Equal employment opportunity: All qualified persons will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, familial status, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability for which a reasonable accommodation can be made, or any other status protected by law. Assistance will be gladly provided upon request for any applicant with sensory or non-sensory disabilities.

*Fresh Consulting is an E-Verify participating company

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