VP of Software & Autonomy

About the RoleWe're hiring a VP of Software Engineering to lead our next chapter.This is an opportunity to build and scale the engineering organization responsible for the software powering hundreds—and eventually thousands—of autonomous robots operating in real customer environments. You'll lead a talented team of robotics, infrastructure, and autonomy engineers while partnering closely with Product, Hardware, AI, and Operations to shape both our technology and our company.What You’ll Do:Build, lead, and develop a world-class software engineering organization, creating a culture of ownership, accountability, and technical excellence.Define the long-term technical vision for Chef's software platform while ensuring consistent execution against near-term customer commitments.Scale our autonomy, robotics, and cloud software to support a rapidly growing fleet of deployed robots.Improve system reliability, deployment velocity, and operational excellence across our production software stack.Partner closely with Hardware, Applications, Manufacturing, and Customer Success to deliver solutions that solve real customer problems.Establish engineering operating rhythms, planning processes, and development practices that help teams move quickly without sacrificing quality.Recruit, mentor, and develop exceptional engineering leaders and individual contributors.Serve as a member of the leadership team, helping shape company strategy as we scale.Qualifications10+ years of software engineering experience, including significant leadership experience.Experience leading engineering managers and multi-disciplinary software organizations.A track record of scaling engineering teams while maintaining a high bar for technical quality.Experience delivering software for robotics, autonomous systems, industrial automation, or other hardware-enabled products.Strong technical depth across distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, developer platforms, or robotics software.A passion for building teams, developing leaders, and creating a culture where engineers can do their best work.Excellent judgment, communication skills, and the ability to balance long-term architecture with short-term execution.