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Clera

Principal Robotics Software Engineer

San Francisco, California, United States

Location
San Francisco, California, United States
Work
On-site
Employment
Full-time
Level
Lead / staff
Function
Engineering
Pay
$235K – $305K a year (read from the ad)
Posted
2 days ago

Pay and the market here

The top of this role’s range, $305K a year, is 4% above the median of $292K for lead / staff engineering jobs in San Francisco (middle half $250K – $350K, 934 jobs that state pay).

5,128 engineering jobs open in San Francisco: 9% remote, 1,038 posted in the last 30 days.

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About the role

About the Role

Join a defense technology team developing autonomous robotic systems for countering unmanned aircraft. As the most senior individual contributor on the robotics team, you will write critical production code and help ensure the system performs reliably on real hardware.

What You'll Do

  • Write and own production C++ across the robotics software stack.
  • Establish timing and safety contracts across perception, tracking, control, and autonomy.
  • Turn prototype software into repeatable field releases through packaging, deployment, CI/CD, quality assurance, and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
  • Mentor and grow the robotics team while remaining hands-on with code.
  • Debug hardware and field issues, including during regular range tests.

What We're Looking For

  • At least 10 years of hands-on robotics software engineering experience, with shipped systems and recent coding experience.
  • Production C++ experience on physical robotic systems, with breadth across sensors, perception, tracking, control, middleware, and deployment.
  • Experience taking a robotics stack from prototype to repeatable use in field, operator, fleet, or customer settings.
  • Experience owning system-wide timing, threading, and latency, and building release, CI/CD, quality assurance, or hardware-in-the-loop processes.
  • Experience mentoring or growing a team while continuing to code as an individual contributor.
  • Familiarity with ROS or ROS2, cameras, IMUs, encoders, or gimbal systems is useful. Defense, aerospace, or safety-critical software experience and an active security clearance are also valued.
  • Must be a U.S. Person due to export control requirements.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary is $235,000 to $305,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.

Location

On-site five days per week in San Francisco, California, with range days included.

Source

Posted by Clera on their own hiring page, jobs.ashbyhq.com. OptiTalent shows it as published, read 08 Nov 2026 12:25 UTC; the original is the reference.

View the original ad ↗

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