Robotics Software Lead - Construction
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Key details
- Salary
- $120K–$175K/yr
- Location
- Falls Church, VA, United States
- Work style
- Onsite
- Level
- Senior
- Job type
- Full-time
- Experience
- 5–8 yrs
- Function
- Software engineering
- Focus area
- Embedded / Firmware
- Posted
- 3w ago
Skills
About the role
Every day, our team members do amazing things in pursuit of our shared purpose to build trust with our clients, partners, subcontractors, and teammates. No matter your background, education, or career path, if you share our vision to create extraordinary experiences, you belong at HITT.
Robotics Software Lead - ConstructionJob Description:
The Robotics Software Lead is responsible for setting the technical direction for HITT’s robotics software team and leading the development of systems designed for complex, dynamic, and unstructured construction jobsites. This role guides initiatives across the full development lifecycle, from proof-of-concept prototypes through scaled field deployment. As a hands-on, product-minded engineering leader, the Robotics Software Lead owns the software stack, manages and mentors engineers, coordinates strategic co-development partnerships, supports the robotics R&D development roadmap, and establishes the architecture, infrastructure, and engineering practices that empower the team to experiment quickly and scale successful solutions.
This team member reports to the Robotics Lead and is part of HITT’s Robotics Team, which leads research and development, pilot programs, and full-time field deployments. The Robotics Team’s mission is to support our project teams, transform our industry, and bring robots to every jobsite.
The ideal candidate has led software teams that have developed and deployed complex robotics systems in demanding real-world environments. They are equally comfortable moving quickly to validate an early concept while applying the engineering discipline required to mature a prototype into a reliable, safe, and maintainable field system. They combine systems-level field robotics expertise with a product mindset, clear project leadership, and a practical understanding of the tradeoffs and dependencies among software, sensors, compute, networking, controls, mechanical hardware, and field operations. This role offers the opportunity to define a foundational software platform, grow a high-performing engineering team, and directly influence how HITT develops and deploys robotics in the field.
We encourage strong candidates excited by this role to apply even if they do not match every technical qualification listed.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Technical Leadership
Own the architecture and technical direction of the robotics software stack, including system interfaces, design standards, and technical review practices.
Own the software infrastructure that supports development, simulation, automated testing, continuous integration and delivery, deployment, observability, data collection, and fleet support.
Guide technical decisions across autonomy, perception, manipulation, operator interfaces, embedded compute, networking, simulation, and cloud-connected services.
Lead efforts to integrate and extend third-party technologies via APIs, SDKs, middleware, and other software interfaces.
Ensure software designs account for safety, cybersecurity, maintainability, degraded operating modes, and the environmental constraints of active construction sites.
Establish standards for AI-assisted and agentic software development, including human review, automated testing, evaluation, and appropriate technical guardrails.
Remain a hands-on technical contributor including architecture reviews, code reviews, prototyping, system integration, and diagnosis of difficult cross-stack issues.
Travel to active construction sites and participate directly in testing, deployment, and operational support.
Team Leadership and Delivery
Lead, manage, and mentor a team of software engineers, setting clear expectations and supporting their technical and professional development.
Coordinate day-to-day R&D work by translating priorities into actionable plans, assigning ownership, tracking dependencies, and resolving blockers.
Establish engineering plans, milestones, release criteria, and quality expectations for multiple concurrent robotics initiatives.
Use product management practices to translate user needs, field observations, and business priorities into requirements, backlogs, experiments, and release plans.
Promote disciplined software engineering practices, including documentation, version control, automated testing, CI/CD, configuration management, and reproducible development environments.
Support team growth through thoughtful staffing, onboarding, feedback, and knowledge sharing.
Partnerships and Cross-Functional Coordination
Lead the technical delivery of co-development initiatives with technology partners and vendors, including defining scope, interfaces, milestones, risks, acceptance criteria, and ownership.
Evaluate third-party technologies and recommend when HITT should build, buy, adapt, or partner based on technical fit, lifecycle cost, schedule, risk, and supportability.
Coordinate software priorities and integration work with hardware engineering, field testing, project teams, operations, information technology, cybersecurity, and other departments.
Research and Development Roadmap
Support the development and execution of the R&D technical roadmap by identifying software capabilities, dependencies, resource needs, technical risks, and validation plans.
Plan and oversee structured testing in the lab and on active construction projects, then use test results and operational feedback to prioritize engineering work and guide product decisions.
Support deployed systems through remote and on-site troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, corrective actions, and improvements to monitoring and support processes.
Document architectures, interfaces, test results, deployment procedures, and lessons learned so solutions can be supported and scaled.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
Bachelor’s degree in robotics, computer science, software engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or related field, advanced degree preferred.
5+ years of experience in robotics software development, including demonstrated experience leading software engineering teams that developed and deployed complex field robotics applications in real-world environments.
Experience applying product
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