Senior Robotics Software Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

Reports to: Head of Software & Controls

Workplace Type: Hybrid (onsite in Santa Cruz 3 days/week)

At Capstan Medical, we’re building one of the most exciting and innovative companies in medtech—developing a first-of-its-kind robotic platform for minimally invasive heart valve treatment. Our team combines surgical robotics, catheter-based delivery, and next-generation implants to transform complex procedures into safer, lower-stress solutions for patients and clinicians alike. As a highly collaborative, hands-on team, we move fast, wear multiple hats, and believe the best ideas can come from anyone. 

Based in Santa Cruz, our unique workspace blends cutting-edge Bay Area innovation with a lifestyle-driven environment near trails, beaches, and open space—creating the perfect place to do meaningful, career-defining work.

Overview:

Join Us in Revolutionizing Cardiac Care from Beautiful Santa Cruz

Imagine building software for life-saving robotics technology while being minutes from world-class surf breaks and redwood forests. We’re developing a groundbreaking robotic platform that gives surgeons superhuman precision in transcatheter valve deployment—and we need an exceptional Software Engineer to design and build the complex software systems that make our robot work.

You’ll be writing code that runs on a real-time robotic system—building features, designing services, solving hard problems, and shipping software that clinicians depend on. We need someone who can architect and implement robust software, and who understands operating systems deeply enough to reason about performance, concurrency, and system behavior when it matters.

What You’ll Do:

• Design and build software components for a multi-process robotic system spanning real-time control, system services, and clinical applications
• Architect and implement services that manage system state, coordinate between processes, and ensure safe operation
• Write performant, reliable code in Python, C++, or Rust depending on the requirements of the problem
• Profile, debug, and optimize software to meet real-time performance constraints
• Implement security features and hardening measures for a medical device platform
• Collaborate with controls engineers, GUI developers, and systems engineers to deliver integrated functionality
• Contribute to software architecture decisions and drive technical direction for your areas of ownership
• Write clear documentation and participate in design reviews
• Support verification and validation activities to ensure software meets regulatory requirements

Skills:

• Excellent software engineering fundamentals: you write clean, maintainable, well-tested code
• Strong proficiency in Python and C++; Rust experience is a plus
• Deep understanding of operating systems concepts: processes, threads, IPC, scheduling, memory management
• Solid Linux skills: comfortable in the terminal, understands how the OS works under the hood
• Experience designing and building complex multi-component software systems
• Strong debugging skills—you can track down issues across process boundaries and system layers
• Understanding of concurrency, synchronization, and the challenges of real-time systems
• Clear communicator who can discuss technical tradeoffs and design decisions

Requirements:

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Robotics, or equivalent
• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
• Track record of designing and shipping complex software systems
• Experience working on software that interacts closely with hardware or the operating system
• Thrives in a fast-paced environment where you own problems end-to-end
• Ability to work in a hybrid environment, onsite 3 days a week at our Santa Cruz, CA office. In the future, there will be an option to work one day from our satellite office in Los Altos, CA.

Preferred:

• Broad experience across software technologies—you’ve worked in different languages, frameworks, and domains, and you pick up new tools quickly when the problem demands it
• Experience with robotics software or ROS/ROS2
• Medical device or safety-critical systems background
• Experience with real-time systems or performance-critical applications
• Familiarity with software security practices and system hardening
• Experience with distributed systems or service-oriented architectures
• Background in controls, motion planning, or mechatronics

We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, and disability, or other legally protected status.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.