---
title: 'Staff Robotics Software Engineer at Path Robotics'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-robotics-software-engineer-path-robotics-columbus-hzbv9fwy48nh'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-11'
---

# Staff Robotics Software Engineer at Path Robotics

- **Company:** Path Robotics
- **Location:** Columbus, OH
- **Posted:** 2026-08-04
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-11
- **Apply:** https://boards.greenhouse.io/pathrobotics/jobs/8676058002?gh_jid=8676058002

## Job description

Build the Path Forward

At Path Robotics, we’re building the future of embodied intelligence. Our AI-driven systems enable robots to adapt, learn, and perform in the real world closing the skilled labor gap and transforming industries. We go beyond traditional methods, combining perception, reasoning, and control to deliver field-ready AI that is risk-aware, reliable, and continuously improving through real-world use.

Big, hard problems are our everyday work, and our team of intelligent, humble, and driven people make the impossible possible together.

We're seeking a Staff Robotics Software Engineer to provide technical leadership across our robotics software stack and help define the next generation of intelligent robotic systems. This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who thrives on solving complex systems challenges while influencing technical direction across multiple teams. You'll architect and build software spanning perception, planning, controls, and execution, mentor other engineers, and drive the adoption of scalable software practices that enable our robots to perform increasingly complex real-world tasks. Your work will directly shape the capabilities of autonomous systems deployed in manufacturing environments today and the broader future of embodied AI.

## What You’ll Do

- Lead the technical architecture and development of core robotics software across perception, motion planning, controls, and execution systems.
- Design scalable software frameworks that enable reliable, maintainable, and high-performance robotic applications across multiple platforms.
- Drive motion planning and trajectory generation for complex robotic tasks, including adaptive sensor-driven motion and multi-robot coordination.
- Develop advanced kinematics, collision checking, reachability analysis, and optimization algorithms for robotic manipulators.
- Build and optimize real-time control systems, trajectory correction, feature tracking, and visual servoing to improve robot accuracy and reliability.
- Extend our autonomy stack to support mobile robotic platforms through localization, mapping, navigation, and integrated manipulation.
- Lead development of hardware abstraction layers and real-time communication with robot controllers, sensors, scanners, and vision systems.
- Evaluate and integrate modern AI techniques, including reinforcement learning, learned planners, foundation models, and simulation to complement classical robotics approaches.
- Mentor and provide technical guidance to software engineers, establish engineering best practices, and raise the technical bar across the organization.
- Partner closely with Machine Learning, Perception, Hardware, and Systems Engineering teams to define long-term technical strategy and deliver production-ready robotic capabilities
- Shape Path's long-term technical roadmap by monitoring emerging research and problem-solving techniques and championing the ones to unlock new capabilities.

## Who You Are

- Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical field or equivalent industry experience.
- 8+ years developing robotics software with deep expertise in modern C++, with Python proficiency strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated experience architecting and delivering large-scale robotics software systems from concept through deployment.
- Deep expertise in one or more of the following: motion planning, manipulation, controls, autonomy, SLAM, localization, perception, or robot simulation.
- Strong understanding of real-time robotics, systems programming, multithreading, concurrency, and performance optimization.
- Experience designing software that interfaces directly with robotic hardware and operates reliably in production environments.
- Proven ability to influence technical direction, mentor engineers, and lead cross-functional engineering initiatives without direct management responsibility.
- Strong Linux development experience with Git, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and modern software engineering practices.
- Excellent problem-solving and communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into scalable engineering solutions

## Why You’ll Love Working Here

- Daily free lunch to keep you fueled and connected with the team
- Flexible PTO so you can take the time you need, when you need it
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
- 6 weeks fully paid parental leave, plus an additional 6–8 weeks for birthing parents (12–14 weeks total)
- 401(k) retirement plan through Empower
- Generous employee referral bonuses—help us grow our team!

## Who We Are

At Path Robotics we love coming to work to solve interesting and tough challenges but also because our ideas are welcomed and valued. We encourage unique thinking and are dedicated to creating a diverse and inclusive environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in the application process or any part of the hiring process, please contact HR@path-robotics.com. We are committed to providing equal access and will work with qualified individuals to ensure a fair and accessible hiring experience. We will respond to your request within 48 hours.

## About Path Robotics

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Path Robotics builds physical AI systems that enable autonomous robotic welding for heavy industries, addressing the critical skilled labor shortage in manufacturing.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series D, $271M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: Columbus, Ohio, United States
- **Founded**: 2014
- **Founders**: Andy Lonsberry (CEO) and Alex Lonsberry (CTO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Industrial robotics, AI-powered manufacturing automation, heavy fabrication
- **Target customers**: B2B, Enterprise — specifically heavy industry, defense, utility & energy, data center construction, and general manufacturing
- **Mission**: Create real value for customers while rebuilding the backbone of American industry by helping manufacturers navigate the skilled labor shortage.

## Products & Services
- **Intelligent Welding Cells**: Fixed robotic cells that use AI and computer vision to see, understand, and adapt to part variations in real-time, enabling autonomous welding without precision fixturing.
- **Obsidian™ AI**: A foundational AI model for welding, trained on tens of millions of welded inches, enabling real-time adaptation for high-quality welds across part-to-part variations.
- **JobBuilder**: A web-based software application launched at FABTECH 2024 that simplifies part programming, reducing the setup bottleneck and expanding the addressable market to fabricators without specialized robotics staff.
- **Path Foundry (RaaS)**: A Robotics-as-a-Service model where Path owns and operates the welding cells, charging customers for welding capacity with $0 CapEx, targeting a 30% lower cost and 4x productivity improvement.
- **Rove**: A mobile welding system mounted on a quadruped platform (announced April 2026), extending adaptive welding capabilities beyond fixed-cell applications.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: $271M total funding raised (Series D, last raised ~2 years ago)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly named in available sources; the company has a Board of Directors and leadership team including a Chief Revenue Officer (Heather Carroll) and EVP of Global Operations (Mike Renn).
- **Growth Signals**: 198 employees as of March 2026; launched Path Foundry RaaS model in October 2024; launched JobBuilder at FABTECH 2024; announced Rove mobile welding system in April 2026; serves 4 key industries (Defense, Data Centers, Utility & Energy, Heavy Industry); addresses a forecasted 600k welder shortage by 2030.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Perception-driven fit-up**: The core differentiator is the ability to recognize part geometry, compensate for dimensional variation, and execute a weld without precision fixturing — a capability traditional robotic welding lacks, which requires tight part consistency.
- **Obsidian™ foundational AI model**: A purpose-built, first-of-its-kind AI model for welding trained on tens of millions of welded inches, enabling continuous learning and real-time adaptation.
- **RaaS model (Path Foundry)**: Eliminates upfront CapEx for customers, lowering adoption barriers for mid-market fabricators who cannot justify six- or seven-figure capital commitments.
- **End-to-end autonomy**: The system handles pick, fit-up, and weld in a single automated flow, with 24/7 mission control support, targeting 4x productivity improvement.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling the RaaS model**: Path Foundry is the primary go-to-market strategy, requiring the company to manage fleet maintenance, logistics, service-level guarantees, and asset utilization across a distributed installed base.
- **Expanding addressable geometry**: The Rove mobile platform announcement signals a push beyond fixed-cell applications into more varied and mobile welding environments.
- **Defense and critical infrastructure**: The company is actively targeting defense (shipyards, arsenals), data center construction, and utility/energy sectors as key growth verticals.
- **Reducing programming friction**: JobBuilder aims to lower the barrier to adoption for fabricators without specialized robotics staff, expanding the total addressable market.

## Why Work Here
- **Impactful mission**: The company directly addresses a critical national problem — a forecasted 600,000 welder shortage by 2030 — by building technology that keeps American manufacturing competitive.
- **Cutting-edge technology**: Work at the intersection of AI, machine learning, computer vision, and robotics, building a foundational AI model (Obsidian) trained on tens of millions of welded inches.
- **Collaborative culture**: The company emphasizes "People + Robots Together" and states that "Our people are our competitive advantage," with a focus on creating real customer value.
- **Growth trajectory**: With $271M in funding, 198 employees, and a pivot to a RaaS model, the company is in a high-growth phase with significant runway.
- **Leadership**: Founded and led by brothers Andy Lonsberry (CEO) and Alex Lonsberry (CTO), who have scaled the company from a university basement to a leading physical-AI company.
- **Work environment**: Based in Columbus, Ohio, with a focus on collaborative, passionate teams working on cutting-edge machine learning and impactful real-world problems. The careers page highlights "Impactful," "Collaborative," "AI-Powered," and "Cutting-edge machine learning" as core themes.

## Sources
1. [path-robotics.com](https://www.path-robotics.com/)
2. [path-robotics.com/careers](https://www.path-robotics.com/careers)
3. [path-robotics.com/about](https://www.path-robotics.com/about)
4. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/path-robotics)
5. [robotics.press](https://robotics.press/news/path-robotics-company-profile/)

## Other roles at Path Robotics

- [Field Install Technician](https://feeny.ai/job/field-install-technician-path-robotics-columbus-tat3a15vnfxq) — Columbus, OH
- [Software Engineer, C++](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-c-path-robotics-columbus-s1x7t07459pc) — Columbus, OH
- [Machine Learning Engineer, Perception](https://feeny.ai/job/machine-learning-engineer-perception-path-robotics-columbus-hbj0gb5a91xs) — Columbus, OH
- [Manager, Enterprise Fleet Support](https://feeny.ai/job/manager-enterprise-fleet-support-path-robotics-columbus-z05e6cw5ftdx) — Columbus, OH
- [Manager, Robotic Operations Support](https://feeny.ai/job/manager-robotic-operations-support-path-robotics-columbus-y0694c3fed2h) — Columbus, OH
- [Global Supply Manager, Sensing](https://feeny.ai/job/global-supply-manager-sensing-path-robotics-columbus-yq941dkmch4x) — Columbus, OH
- [Global Supply Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/global-supply-manager-path-robotics-columbus-q7qhgbwdnhbb) — Columbus, OH
- [Materials Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/materials-program-manager-path-robotics-columbus-tbap2sxmj14n) — Columbus, OH
- [Production Scheduler](https://feeny.ai/job/production-scheduler-path-robotics-columbus-pkm7rkmm7rpx) — Columbus, OH
- [Warehouse and Logistics Associate](https://feeny.ai/job/warehouse-and-logistics-associate-path-robotics-columbus-pmt6b7swqz7m) — Columbus, OH