Senior Robotics Software Engineer

Senior Robotics Software Engineer | Adaptive Robotic Manipulation (ARM) | Hybrid Working | Welwyn Garden City

Introduction:

We are Ocado Group, and we're bringing world-class automation to online grocery. Our Ocado Smart Platform (OSP) combines cutting-edge robotics, AI, and IoT within our advanced CFCs (Customer Fulfilment Centres). We've mastered the single pick, transforming online delivery for our global partners. Join us and be part of a team pushing the boundaries of retail technology.

About the Role As a Robotics Software Engineer within our Adaptive Robotic Manipulation (ARM) team, you will play a pivotal role in advancing our state-of-the-art robot picking systems. You will focus on driving the core engineering and performance optimization of our robotic systems, ensuring they achieve exceptional latency, reliability, and safety standards required for large-scale commercial deployment. Working within a dynamic, Agile environment, you will translate advanced concepts into highly robust, production-ready code that operates seamlessly in physical environments.

This position offers the opportunity to collaborate cross-functionally across hardware, firmware, and product disciplines to design and scale end-to-end sensor-driven automation solutions. From integrating applied machine learning techniques to building resilient error-recovery behaviors, your work will directly enhance robot capabilities and system reasoning. Additionally, you will champion engineering best practices, mentor junior engineers, and maintain efficient CI/CD pipelines to ensure rapid, safe software delivery.

Key Responsibilities

• Driving the core engineering and performance optimisation of robotic systems to meet rigorous latency, reliability, and quality standards.
• Architecting and implementing robust fail-safes, error-recovery behaviors, and safety protocols for dynamic physical environments.
• Designing, implementing, and scaling sensor-driven robotics solutions to solve real-world automation challenges.
• Integrating and optimising applied machine learning techniques, such as learning by demonstration, imitation, or reinforcement learning.
• Maintaining and enhancing CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and deployment infrastructure.
• Leading Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and deep-dive troubleshooting to identify bottlenecks and implement permanent engineering fixes.
• Collaborating cross-functionally with hardware, firmware, and product teams to architect edge-to-cloud software solutions.
• Conducting rigorous code reviews and mentoring junior engineers to elevate the team's overall technical capability.

What We’re Looking For

Essential

• Strong software engineering skills with a proven ability to write clean, reusable code ready for production deployment.
• Proficient in writing Python code.
• Experience working with robotic systems, robot control, and background knowledge in kinematics and dynamics.
• Hands-on experience utilizing Generative AI tools and APIs (e.g., Claude, OpenAI) to accelerate development or enhance system reasoning.
• Experience with machine learning techniques and developing ML solutions.
• Solid understanding of common software development practices, source control, peer reviews, and Agile methodologies.
• Experience developing on Ubuntu Linux and using containerisation applications like Docker.
• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD systems, MLOps practices, and querying large datasets (e.g., SQL/BigQuery).
• Excellent technical communication skills with the ability to document complex systems and collaborate across teams.

Nice to Haves

• Experience with cloud computing platforms such as AWS and GCP.
• Experience building and training deep learning models using PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Experience in GPU-accelerated computing using CUDA.
• Experience in computer vision and robot vision.
• Developing robotics applications leveraging ROS2 middleware for communication and control.
• Experience with robotics simulation environments such as Nvidia Isaac Sim or MuJoCo.

Benefits

We believe in supporting our people with meaningful, flexible benefits that prioritise well-being and work-life balance. Here’s a snapshot of what you can expect:

• Time to recharge: 25 days annual leave (rising to 27 after 5 years), plus the option to buy more – and 30 days a year to work from anywhere in the world.
• Health & wellbeing: Private Medical Insurance from your first month, wellbeing support through specialist apps and EAP, plus Income Protection and Life Assurance.
• Family-first policies: 22 weeks paid maternity/primary carer leave and 6 weeks paid paternity leave.
• Financial support: Pension with employer matching up to 7%, share schemes (Sharesave & BAYE), and interest-free loans for train tickets.
• Commuter perks: Cycle to Work Scheme and free shuttle buses to/from Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City stations.
• Exclusive discounts: 15% off at Ocado.com with free delivery (starting in your first month).

Be bold, be unique, be brilliant, be you. We are looking for individuality and we value diversity. We are an equal opportunities employer and we are committed to treating all applicants and employees fairly and equally. We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to provide a positive, barrier-free recruitment process and supportive work environment. If you have any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of application.

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