Senior Software Engineer - Calibration, Localization & Mapping

Cosmic Robotics, Inc. · San Francisco, California, United States

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Summary

Lead the design, development, and implementation of state estimation algorithms for mobile manipulation robots.

About this role

Senior Software Engineer - Calibration Localization and Mapping Location: San Francisco, CA (full time, in-person) Company OverviewOur mission is to accelerate the construction of critical infrastructure on Earth while pioneering technologies to enable humanity to build beyond Earth. Starting with the Cosmic-1a system that installs solar panels 10x faster than today’s methods, our goal is to help transition the world to a clean energy future and laying the groundwork for the future of autonomous construction.

The RoleWe are seeking a Senior Software Engineer in Calibration, Localization, and Mapping to lead the design, development, and implementation of performant and scalable state estimation algorithms that enhance the capabilities of our mobile manipulation robot. In this role, you will take technical ownership of software that fuses data from lidar, inertial sensors, vision, and proprioception to estimate the robot’s ego-motion in its operating environment. You will work across the stack, balancing algorithmic performance, system constraints, and real-world reliability to deliver production-ready perception capabilities.

ResponsibilitiesDesign, develop, and integrate robust high-throughput low-latency state estimation, pose estimation, mapping, and reconstruction algorithms for real-world robotic systems

Build simulation-based and on-robot evaluation

Build and maintain algorithms and workflows for intrinsics and extrinsics sensor calibration as well as hand-eye calibration

Translate business and operational requirements into well-scoped technical work packages and execution plans

Collaborate cross-functionally with controls, platform, and hardware engineers to ensure system-level success

Maintain and elevate code quality through code reviews, automated testing, and documentation

Contribute to technical direction and engineering standards through strong leadership and adherence to best practices

Travel to customer projects for on-site testing and deployment of robotic equipment in the field

RequirementsPhD or Master’s degree and 4+ years of applied research experience in Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or other related field

5+ years of professional engineering experience

Experience leading technical projects or small teams, including setting technical direction, coordinating execution, and mentoring other engineers

Fluency in modern C++ (C++17 or later), Python, and CUDA

Strong mathematical skills, including deep understanding of 3D geometry, probability, and linear algebra

Deep expertise in state estimation as on-manifold nonlinear least-squares, including SO(3)/SE(3) parameterizations, marginalization, and filter- and optimization-based techniques

Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Thrives in ambiguity and incomplete information

Bonus8+ years of professional software engineering experience

Hands-on experience delivering production-grade ML models in latency-sensitive, edge-deployed systems

Using foundation models and simulation tools like Isaac Sim to accelerate data collection and model iteration

Optimizing or compressing models using tools such as TensorRT

Managing model lifecycles, including versioning, evaluation, and deployment

Experience with 3D scene representations such as TRIPS, Gaussian Splatting, TSDF, or vector maps

Skills named in this posting

and 3 more

About Cosmic Robotics, Inc.

Cosmic Robotics builds Physical AI for the construction industry, focusing on robots that build solar farms and data centers.

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