Robot Software Engineer (Platform and Backend)

Oakland, CA (In Person Only)
Full-time

First, the good news: The world now has over 1.7 terawatts of cumulative solar capacity and solar PV is the lowest-cost source of energy generation worldwide.

The challenge: The world must build 3 terawatts of new solar capacity every year for the next 25 years.

Planted is creating new technology to overhaul how the industry develops and builds solar power resources. And we need help. We're expanding our team of ambitious, curious, and hands-on engineers and operators. Come own large parts of product, company, or business development and help power the world with 100% clean energy.

As a key member of our Robot Software team, you will design, build, and operate the backbone that keeps our robot fleet online, secure, and productive, owning backend services and APIs for telemetry, data ingest, command and control, and user workflows while bringing up compute with operating systems, drivers, firmware, and device configuration, and creating fleet scale CI/CD that produces reproducible edge images and cloud releases. You will run deployments end to end with safe over the air updates, staged rollouts, health checks, automated rollback, and device configuration while operating and securing cloud infrastructure across compute, storage, networking, private connectivity, and secrets. You are a platform generalist who moves smoothly between Python services, device provisioning, infrastructure automation, and incident response, and you jump into the highest priority gaps to ship outcomes quickly and safely.

This position offers the opportunity to collaborate closely with a highly skilled cross-functional engineering team, taking ownership of projects from ideation to implementation to enhance the usability and reliability of our robotic systems in challenging real-world environments.

The salary range for this full-time position is $130,000 - $175,000 plus stock options and benefits. Pay within the range is based on candidate experience, job-specific skills, education, and work location. The target experience for the position is 3 - 7+ years

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop and maintain backend services/APIs for robot telemetry, data ingest, command/control, and user workflows
• Bring up compute hardware (x86/ARM/Jetson): OS provisioning, drivers/firmware, and device configuration
• Create and run fleet-scale CI/CD pipelines; manage artifacts, versioning, and reproducible builds for edge images and cloud services (containers, cross-compilation)
• Manage robot fleet deployments: safe OTA updates (A/B), staged rollouts, health checks, automated rollback, and device configuration
• Operate and secure cloud infrastructure: manage compute, storage, networking, VPNs, security controls, and secrets
• Administer and monitor data systems: manage databases and message systems; build observability with logging, metrics, tracing, dashboards, alerting, and clear SLOs with runbooks
• Ensure security and reliability of our cloud and robot systems
• Conduct hands-on testing of edge software and system integrations in the field and our testing yard to validate reliability
• Work like a startup generalist across edge, cloud, data, and infra; jump into the highest-priority gaps to ship outcomes quickly and safely

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in CS or equivalent
• 3 - 7 years of professional experience in software development
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and teamwork abilities
• Experienced in using Python 3.10+ for backend development, data infrastructure, and automation
• Experience managing IoT deployments or robot fleets
• Experience creating and operating CI/CD pipelines
• Familiarity working in Docker containers and container deployment
• Well-versed with developing software for Linux environments
• Adept at writing Bash scripts for automation and system management
• Knowledgeable of SQL and database management
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills
• Curious demeanor and excited to learn new technologies when necessary
• Prioritizes delivering user value while making pragmatic technical tradeoffs
• Comfortable working as a generalist: spanning multiple domains, moving fast with discipline, and owning problems from design through operations
• Based in the SF Bay Area (or willing to relocate) and available on-site 80%.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience with pub/sub architectures (ROS 2, MQTT, etc)
• Experience building simple web applications for internal dashboards or tooling
• Experience implementing observability stacks

*A note on qualifications: Many people only apply for jobs if they believe they can perform every task in the job description. We are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job and will consider equivalent combinations of knowledge, skills, education, and experience to meet minimum qualifications. If you are interested in applying, we encourage you to think broadly about your background and skill set for the role.

PHYSICAL AND SENSORY REQUIREMENTS

• Mostly desk work using standard office equipment

• 11 paid company holidays and flexible Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Company-paid in-office lunches
• Stock options
• Medical, vision, dental, and other benefits
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• 401(k)
• A chance to have an empowered, meaningful, and early role in climate

• You want to solve challenging problems
• You are biased towards action and focus on the vital work that drives the most impact
• You prioritize the physical and psychological safety of yourself and those around you
• You are humble, embrace change, and deliver and receive candid feedback
• You are optimistic about the future and can make tough decisions to help get there
• You have high expectations and coach, develop, and make time to help others

Planted Solar is an equal opportunity employer committed to growing inclusively, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, medical condition, age, or veteran status. However you identify, or whatever background you bring with you, please apply. We look forward to hearing from you.