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An innovative robotics company is seeking a Senior Robotics Engineer - Motion Planning to join their team in Woburn, MA. This is a full-time opportunity with a company reinventing automotive service through cutting-edge robotics. The company is developing automated tire changing and wheel balancing technology that combines advanced robotics, multi-axis motion systems, perception, and intelligent software to transform a process that has remained largely unchanged for decades.
This is a high-ownership opportunity for a robotics engineer who wants to be a primary technical driver for motion planning and control on a completely unique robotic platform. You'll work directly with custom multi-axis hardware, solving challenging problems involving motion planning, collision avoidance, kinematics, trajectory optimization, and real-world robotic execution. As part of a small, highly capable team, you'll have significant influence over technical direction, direct access to hardware, and the opportunity to take sophisticated robotics technology from prototype through real-world deployment. If you enjoy hands-on engineering, working close to the robot, and solving problems that don't have an existing playbook, this role offers the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on a category-defining technology.
Required Skills & Experience
Deep expertise in robotic motion planning algorithms, including sampling-based methods such as RRT and RRT*, probabilistic roadmaps (PRM), and trajectory optimization techniques such as CHOMP, STOMP, or TrajOpt
2+ years of hands-on experience with ROS 2 and MoveIt/MoveIt 2 in production or near-production robotic systems
Strong understanding of robot kinematics, including forward and inverse kinematics for serial and parallel manipulators
Hands-on experience with kinematic solvers such as KDL, TRAC-IK, or equivalent
Strong understanding of collision avoidance, occupancy representations, voxel grids, OctoMap, and safety-aware motion planning
Experience configuring and adapting URDF/SRDF models, planning scenes, planner interfaces, joint groups, and motion profiles
Strong proficiency in C++ and/or Python within the ROS 2 ecosystem
Understanding of real-time performance considerations, memory management, software architecture, and robotics software design patterns
Proven ability to diagnose complex hardware/software integration issues, from high-level trajectory failures to low-level actuator constraints
Experience developing production-grade robotic systems capable of reliable, fast motion planning under real-world constraints
Experience working with dynamic obstacles, tight tolerances, and complex collision environments
Experience with robotic simulation environments for development, testing, and validation
Strong software engineering fundamentals, including writing clean, maintainable, well-tested code and documenting technical designs
Desired Skills & Experience
BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field
Experience with the Pilz Industrial Motion Planner, OMPL, CHOMP, STOMP, or other industrial motion planning frameworks
Background in automotive service equipment, industrial automation, manufacturing systems, or complex mechatronic platforms
Experience with real-time trajectory execution and hardware-in-the-loop testing
Experience with safety-rated motion control, safety interlocks, or other robotic safety systems
Full-stack robotics experience spanning motor control, drive systems, hardware abstraction layers (HAL), and low-level firmware interfaces
Experience integrating perception systems into reactive or perception-driven motion planning
Familiarity with LiDAR, depth cameras, IMUs, point clouds, PCL, Open3D, SLAM, or object detection
Experience deploying and debugging robotic systems in the field
Experience working with multi-manipulator or multi-axis robotic systems operating in confined or highly constrained environments
Experience optimizing robotic systems for fast, repeatable, production-ready operation
What You Will Be Doing Tech Breakdown
30% Motion Planning & Trajectory Optimization - Develop collision-aware motion planning using OMPL, RRT/RRT-Connect/PRM, Pilz, CHOMP, STOMP, TrajOpt, and other planning approaches
20% ROS 2 & MoveIt Development - Build and maintain ROS 2 nodes, MoveIt/MoveIt 2 configurations, planning scenes, URDF/SRDF models, planner interfaces, joint groups, and trajectory execution systems
20% Robotics Software & Controls - Develop software for actuator state feedback, joint state publishing, trajectory execution, motion control, and hardware interfaces
15% Kinematics, Collision Avoidance & Safety - Define kinematic constraints, velocity/acceleration limits, collision models, safety interlocks, and joint-specific motion profiles
15% Simulation, Testing & Field Deployment - Validate robotic behaviors in simulation, perform hardware-in-the-loop testing, debug production hardware, and optimize motion performance during field deployments
Daily Responsibilities
50% Hands-On Engineering - Write and review C++/Python code, develop motion planning algorithms, tune planners, debug trajectories, and optimize robotic performance
20% Hardware & Systems Integration - Work directly with robotic hardware, actuators, drives, sensors, and low-level interfaces to ensure reliable motion execution
15% Testing & Validation - Build simulation and validation workflows, test collision avoidance and trajectory execution, and ensure motion planning meets production requirements
15% Team Collaboration - Partner with perception, systems, hardware, firmware, and software engineers to define requirements, troubleshoot integration issues, and establish technical direction