---
title: 'Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Robotics Platform at FieldAI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-staff-software-engineer-robotics-platform-fieldai-irvine-ybbvw5cxmkrq'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Robotics Platform at FieldAI

- **Company:** FieldAI
- **Location:** Irvine, CA
- **Compensation:** $150k–$215k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/field-ai/a0856b2f-3674-49fa-8546-9b823df597f2

## Job description

FieldAI’s Irvine team is where embodied AI meets real robots, real sensors, and real field deployments. Based in the heart of Southern California’s robotics ecosystem, we build risk-aware, reliable, field-ready AI systems that solve the hardest problems in robotics and unlock the full potential of embodied intelligence. If you want your work to ship, get tested on hardware, and improve through real deployments, Irvine is the place. We go beyond typical data-driven approaches or pure transformer-only architectures, combining rigorous engineering with learning systems proven in globally deployed solutions that deliver results today and get better every time our robots run in the field.

We’re building the software platform that enables FieldAI’s foundation models to run reliably and efficiently across a growing range of robots, hardware configurations, and real-world applications. As a founding member of the Robotics Platform team, you’ll help define the architecture, interfaces, and runtime systems that make our autonomy stack portable across embodiments while delivering the performance and reliability required for deployment in the physical world. This role sits at the intersection of robotics, distributed systems, middleware, and performance engineering. You’ll work across the full system—from APIs and subsystem boundaries to communication middleware, runtime execution, simulation, and deployment on real hardware—solving the foundational problems that allow autonomy teams to move faster without coupling themselves to a particular robot or hardware stack. A key part of the role is defining how robots describe themselves to the rest of the system. You’ll design the models and interfaces used to represent robot capabilities, current state, and intent so that dashboards, autonomous agents, fleet-management systems, and other services can reason consistently about what a robot can do, what it is doing, and what actions are valid. These abstractions need to remain useful as robots gain new sensors, behaviors, embodiments, and autonomy capabilities. At the same time, you’ll tackle the systems challenges of making sophisticated robot intelligence practical at the edge: designing clean abstractions without sacrificing performance, moving large amounts of data efficiently through constrained systems, understanding latency and reliability end to end, and building infrastructure that behaves predictably outside the lab. You’ll have significant influence over the technical direction of the platform and will work closely with autonomy, hardware, simulation, infrastructure, product, and deployment teams to turn cross-cutting requirements into durable systems and interfaces. The systems you build will directly determine how quickly FieldAI can bring its intelligence to new robots, integrate with fleet and operational tooling, and deploy new applications in the real world.

## What You'll Get to Do

- Architect the software platform for physical AI—the foundation on which our autonomy runs across legged robots, ground vehicles, humanoids, and future embodiments
- Define the interfaces and contracts between major subsystems, and steward them as versioned, well-documented APIs that internal teams and external partners can depend on
- Design the abstractions that describe a robot’s capabilities, state, and intent, creating a consistent contract between on-robot autonomy and higher-level systems such as dashboards, autonomous agents, mission planners, and fleet-management platforms
- Develop mechanisms for discovering and tracking robot capabilities dynamically as hardware, software, sensors, and autonomy modules change, enabling higher-level systems to determine what missions and behaviors a particular robot can support
- Drive abstractions that decouple our intelligence from specific robots, sensors, compute platforms, and communication architectures, accelerating integration onto new embodiments
- Own platform performance end to end, from real-time execution on the robot through distributed communication and cloud connectivity, and establish the standards for latency, throughput, resource utilization, and reliability in the field
- Build and evolve the middleware and runtime infrastructure that moves high-bandwidth sensor data, model inputs and outputs, commands, and state throughout the system
- Develop tools and methodologies for profiling, tracing, benchmarking, and understanding system behavior across simulation and physical hardware
- Partner with autonomy, hardware, simulation, infrastructure, product, and deployment teams to identify systemic bottlenecks and turn recurring integration problems into reusable platform capabilities
- Set the technical direction for platform engineering at FieldAI: write designs, build consensus across teams, raise the engineering bar through review and mentorship, and help grow the team

## What You Have

- Education: B.S. or higher in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
- Experience: 8+ years building production robotics or systems software, including hands-on ownership of platform, framework, or infrastructure software that other engineering teams built on top of
- Distributed robotic systems: experience architecting distributed systems involving multiple autonomous agents, processes, computers, or robots, with a strong understanding of the failure modes that emerge outside controlled environments
- Deep ROS 2 and middleware expertise: fluency well beyond application-level use, with a strong command of the distributed systems fundamentals underneath—pub/sub and RPC semantics, quality of service, serialization, discovery, transport, and how these behave on constrained compute and imperfect networks
- Robot capability and intent modeling: experience designing abstractions that describe what a robot can do, what resources or capabilities are currently available, and what the robot is trying to accomplish. You understand how these contracts support higher-level systems such as dashboards, agents, mission planners, and fleet-management platforms
- API and abstraction design: a track record of designing versioned interfaces, frameworks, or SDKs that evolved successfully across multiple consumers. Public examples such as open-source interface packages, SDKs, specifications, design proposals, or standards contributions are a strong plus
- Modern C++ and Python: expert-level proficiency, with a strong commitment to writing code and libraries that other engineers can understand, extend, and depend on
- Systems and performance engineering: experience with Linux on embedded or edge compute, profiling and tracing, concurrency, memory and compute constraints, and techniques for high-throughput, low-latency data movement
- Production track record: software you have written or architected running on real hardware in production, along with the operational judgment that comes from deploying it, debugging failures in the field, and supporting the teams and customers who depend on it
- Judgment and independence: ability to take an ambiguous, cross-team technical problem, determine the right scope and tradeoffs, and drive it to a shipped outcome with minimal direction
- Communication and collaboration: able to write design documents that create alignment, navigate teams with competing priorities, and deliver systems incrementally rather than holding out for a theoretically perfect architecture

The Extras That Set You Apart

- Hands-on robotics experience: experience developing, integrating, or deploying software on quadrupeds, humanoids, manipulators, autonomous vehicles, or other complex robotic platforms
- Robotics middleware: familiarity with communication technologies such as Zenoh, DDS, and MQTT, including their tradeoffs for distributed and resource-constrained systems
- Rust: experience building production systems software in Rust, particularly for networking, middleware, embedded, or performance-sensitive applications
- Real-time and embedded systems: experience with real-time Linux, embedded compute platforms, hardware interfaces, device drivers, or resource-constrained edge systems
- Simulation and hardware-in-the-loop: experience building workflows that span simulation, software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, and validation on physical robots
- Fleet and mission systems: experience designing interfaces between robots and higher-level systems such as fleet managers, mission planners, dashboards, or autonomous agents
- Cloud-to-edge systems: experience designing systems that bridge on-robot software with cloud services while accounting for intermittent connectivity, bandwidth limitations, and degraded network conditions
- Observability and performance tooling: experience building or using tracing, profiling, telemetry, and benchmarking infrastructure to understand complex distributed robotic systems
- Open-source and standards: meaningful contributions to robotics, middleware, distributed-systems, or interface standards through open-source projects, specifications, or technical working groups

Our salary range is generous and we consider each individual’s background and experience when determining final compensation. Base pay may vary based on role scope, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and the Irvine, California market.

Why Join FieldAI in Irvine? In Irvine, you will work where the robots are. Our local team builds and tests systems on real hardware with real sensors, then ships them to operate in unstructured, previously unknown environments around the world. We are solving one of robotics’ hardest challenges: reliable deployment outside the lab. Our Field Foundational Models™ raise the bar for perception, planning, localization, and manipulation, with an emphasis on explainability and safety for real-world use. You will collaborate with a world-class team that thrives on creativity, resilience, and bold thinking. We bring deep experience from organizations such as DeepMind, NASA JPL, Boston Dynamics, NVIDIA, Amazon, Tesla Autopilot, Cruise, Zoox, Toyota Research Institute, and SpaceX, along with a track record of field deployments and strong performance in DARPA challenge segments.

Be Part of the Next Robotics Revolution We are looking for builders who want their work to leave the whiteboard and show up on robots. If you enjoy tackling tough, uncharted questions and working across disciplines, you will find your people here. Our teams span AI, software, robotics engineering, product, field deployment, and technical communication, all focused on shipping systems that perform in the real world.

Our headquarters is in Irvine, and we partner closely with teams there as well as colleagues across the US and around the world. Join us in Southern California and help define what dependable, field-ready autonomy looks like.

We value diverse perspectives and are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace. We evaluate candidates and employees based on merit, qualifications, and performance, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or any other legally protected status.

## About FieldAI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: FieldAI is building the first risk-aware, physics-first foundation model (the Field Foundation Model) that makes robots autonomous in complex, unstructured, and safety-critical real-world environments.
- **Entity Type**: Private (latest funding: Venture Round / Corporate Round; total funding ~$497M)
- **Headquarters**: Irvine, California, United States (with an office in Mission Viejo)
- **Founded**: 2023 (originally known as "AI for Humanity")
- **Founders**: Dr. Ali Agha (CEO) – former NASA JPL Principal Investigator and DARPA challenge winner; Dr. Shayegan Omidshafiei (President & Chief Scientific Officer) – former DeepMind Research Scientist

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Robotics Engineering / Artificial Intelligence (Embodied AI)
- **Target customers**: B2B, Enterprise, Government / Federal agencies, Commercial field operators (construction, industrial, urban operations, mission-critical)
- **Mission / purpose**: "Deploy autonomous robots at scale in any unstructured environment" without reliance on GPS, maps, or pre-trained routes.

## Products & Services
- **[Field Foundation Model (FFM)](https://www.fieldai.com/careers)**: An AI platform that acts as the "general-purpose brain" for robots. It combines data-driven learning with physics-based methods, assesses uncertainty, establishes risk, and adapts autonomously in field conditions. Works across any robot type and continuously improves through a virtuous data flywheel.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric (Total Funding)**: ~$497M across multiple rounds (Seed: $91M, Venture rounds, Corporate round led by Hyundai Motor Group, Series A: $980K led by Temasek Holdings and Prysm Capital) [[linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/fieldai)] [[cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/field-ai)]
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: Hyundai Motor Group (corporate round lead), Temasek Holdings, Prysm Capital, plus other visionary institutions.
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount of 217 employees (+227.8% YoY) [[linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/fieldai)]
  - LinkedIn followers grew +580.4% in the last year (51,728 total) [[linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/fieldai)]
  - Technology deployed globally for a decade – from 900 feet underground to advanced commercial, federal, and mission-critical operations [[fieldai.com/careers](https://www.fieldai.com/careers)]
  - Won segments of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge (Urban phase) [[fieldai.com/team](https://www.fieldai.com/team)]

## Competitive Advantages
- **First risk-aware, physics-first foundation model** – unlike pure data-driven or transformer-only approaches.
- **Field-proven reliability** – systems work without GPS, maps, or pre-programmed routes, and dynamically adapt to uncertainty.
- **Virtuous data flywheel** – each deployment increases model reliability across the entire fleet.
- **Exceptional team** – drawn from DeepMind, NASA JPL, Boston Dynamics, Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla Autopilot, Cruise, Zoox, Toyota Research Institute, and SpaceX [[fieldai.com/team](https://www.fieldai.com/team)]
- **Strong IP & DARPA pedigree** – led by veterans who have shaped the field of autonomous robotics for nearly two decades.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale deployment** of the Field Foundation Model across commercial, industrial, and federal sectors.
- **Expand federal division** (FieldAI Federal) led by former DARPA PM and Toyota Research Institute exec Dr. Eric Krotkov [[fieldai.com/team](https://www.fieldai.com/team)]
- **Hire top-tier talent** in embodied AI, software engineering, robotics hardware, and field operations to accelerate product development and real-world impact [[fieldai.com/careers](https://www.fieldai.com/careers)]

## Why Work Here
- **Impact**: Directly shape how intelligent systems operate in the real world – from underground mines to urban search-and-rescue.
- **Culture**: "Creativity, resilience, and bold thinking" – a supportive environment that encourages pushing beyond conventional methods [[fieldai.com/careers](https://www.fieldai.com/careers)].
- **Team**: Work alongside world-class researchers and engineers from DeepMind, NASA JPL, Boston Dynamics, and leading autonomy companies.
- **Resources**: Backed by over $100M in funding with strong institutional support – rapid execution and fast-paced growth.
- **Work model**: Likely office-centric given the hardware/robotics focus; headquarters in Irvine, CA, with a distributed presence across 9 countries (US, India, Singapore, Japan, Spain, etc.) [[linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/fieldai)].
- **Perks / recognition**: Rated 4.5/5 on employer reviews (16 reviews), with top marks for Culture (4.3) and Career (4.4) [[linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/fieldai)].

## Sources
1. [fieldai.com/careers](https://www.fieldai.com/careers)
2. [linkedin.com/company/fieldai](https://www.linkedin.com/company/fieldai)
3. [fieldai.com/team](https://www.fieldai.com/team)
4. [cbinsights.com/company/field-ai](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/field-ai)
5. [jobs.lever.co/field-ai](https://jobs.lever.co/field-ai)

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