Robotics Software Engineer

Company Overview

Verne Robotics is building intelligent robotic arms that can learn new skills in hours, not months. Backed by Y Combinator and top-tier Silicon Valley investors, we’re turning physical AI into reality — helping industries facing critical labor shortages (hospitality, logistics, biotech, and more) automate back-of-house tasks like packaging, kitting, and folding.

Our flagship platform combines affordable robotic hardware with cutting-edge imitation learning algorithms, enabling reliable, sample-efficient robots that deliver customer value from day one. We’re already live with pilot partners and scaling fast. The founding team brings experience from Apple, Stanford, and Microsoft, with deep expertise in robotics, embodied AI, and large-scale machine learning.

The Role

We’re looking for a talented Robotics Software Engineer to help build the core systems that power our robots in the real world. You’ll work across the stack — from low-level interfaces with sensors and cameras to deploying machine learning models on real hardware. This is a hands-on role where your code will control physical robots from day one.

What You’ll Do

• Build and optimize robotics software in Python and C++, from device drivers to high-level APIs

• Integrate ML models (PyTorch) into visuomotor policy control loops

• Develop reliable infrastructure for teleoperation, data streaming, and experiment management

• Collaborate with hardware and research teams to prototype new capabilities and ship to customers

• Contribute to scaling our cloud + edge systems (AWS, IoT, WebRTC, real-time data pipelines)

Qualifications

• Strong programming skills in Python (you write clean, efficient, production-ready code)

• Solid experience with PyTorch and modern ML workflows

• Systems engineering skills (networking, concurrency, performance)

• At least 1 year of full-time work experience, or 2 internships at top-tier tech companies

Preferred

• Experience with real-time systems (cameras, sensors, streaming)

• Background in electronics or robotics (e.g., Arduinos, motors, robot arms)

• Hands-on with AWS services (EC2, IoT, WebRTC)

Why Join Us

At Verne, you won’t just be writing code — you’ll be shaping the future of physical AI. You’ll see your work run on real robots, in real customer environments, with immediate impact. You’ll join a small, world-class team where your contributions matter and your growth is accelerated.

Details

• Location: South San Francisco, CA (on-site required)

• Compensation: Competitive salary + meaningful equity

• Perks: Free meals vouchers, hardware access, health benefits, PTO

This is a rare chance to join a YC-backed robotics startup early and help define the foundation. If you’re excited about robots, passionate about solving hard problems, and eager to see your work come alive in the real world — we’d love to hear from you.