Staff Robotics System Engineer

Description

Company Introduction

We exist to wow our customers. We know we’re doing the right thing when we hear our customers say, “How did we ever live without Coupang?” Born out of an obsession to make shopping, eating, and living easier than ever, we’re collectively disrupting the multi-billion-dollar e-commerce industry from the ground up. We are one of the fastest-growing ecommerce companies that established an unparalleled reputation for being a dominant and reliable force in South Korean commerce.

We are proud to have the best of both worlds — a startup culture with the resources of a large global public company. This fuels us to continue our growth and launch new services at the speed we have been since our inception. We are all entrepreneurial surrounded by opportunities to drive new initiatives and innovations. At our core, we are bold and ambitious people that like to get our hands dirty and make a hands-on impact. At Coupang, you will see yourself, your colleagues, your team, and the company grow every day.

Our mission to build the future of commerce is real. We push the boundaries of what’s possible to solve problems and break traditional tradeoffs. Join Coupang now to create an epic experience in this always-on, high-tech, and hyper-connected world.

Job Overview

Global Operations Automation and Robotics Technology (GO ART) is the Zero-One organization within Coupang chartered to design, build, and deploy the most advanced fulfillment and transportation automation and robotics solutions in the industry. We are transforming Coupang's logistics network through in-house robotics, computer vision, and AI — at a scale and speed unmatched in Asian e-commerce. The team is based in Mountain View, Seattle, and Seoul. 

We are seeking a Staff Robotics System Engineer to develop robust, high-performance autonomy software for real-world robotic systems. In this role, you will own the full-stack development and production deployment of autonomous robotics systems, bridging perception, planning/control, hardware, WMS, and enterprise workflows at scale. 

You will work closely with multidisciplinary teams spanning hardware, perception, plan & control, WMS, and product engineering to deploy robotic capabilities in industrial environments. The ideal candidate combines deep expertise in robotics algorithms with a systems-level mindset and hands-on experience taking solutions from prototype through validation and production deployment.  

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, design, and integration of full-stack robotics systems, coordinating across perception, planning/control, and hardware subsystems 
• Define system requirements, interfaces, and data contracts between perception ML, Plan and Control teams; ensure seamless integration 
• Own the design and implementation of control logic orchestration using Groot and ROS2, enabling flexible and maintainable behavior trees for robot autonomy 
• Own the robotics software infrastructure including drivers, middleware (ROS/ROS2), simulation environments, and system-level tooling 
• Own the integration of robotics systems with Coupang WMS and operational workflows; design APIs and data models to enable bidirectional communication 
• Build and maintain production-quality robotics software. 
• Develop simulation, testing, and validation workflows that assess safety, robustness, latency, repeatability, and task success across representative operating conditions. 
• Lead system-level debugging and troubleshooting across hardware-software boundaries; drive root cause analysis when issues span multiple teams 
• Own deployment pipelines, containerization, and edge compute optimization for production robotics systems 
• Define system SLAs/SLOs (e.g., latency, throughput, availability, accuracy) and establish metrics to track performance against these targets 
• Implement monitoring, observability, and alerting systems to track system health, bottlenecks, and SLO compliance across all subsystems 
• Contribute to technical roadmaps, architecture decisions, code reviews, documentation, and engineering best practices. 
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to junior and mid-level engineers; establish engineering best practices and standards 

Basic Qualifications

• B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related fields.  
• 8+ years of hands-on experience in robotics systems engineering, with demonstrated progression in scope and ownership 
• Deep proficiency in Python for real-time and systems-level robotics development 
• Proven track record of integrating hardware peripherals (cameras, sensors, PLCs, etc.) into production robotics systems 
• Strong experience with ROS/ROS2 ecosystem including custom message types, services, nodes, and lifecycle management 
• Experience integrating and debugging a full robotic system across software, sensors, actuators, middleware, simulation, and hardware. 
• Real-world industrial robotics experience, including deploying, validating, or supporting robots in manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, inspection, service, or comparable operational environments. 
• Strong analytical, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with edge AI inference pipelines and GPUs. 
• Experience with development and deployment of AI Inference Servers, eg. Triton, vLLM. 
• Expertise in modern GPU-accelerated planning, differentiable optimization, sampling-based planning, model predictive control (MPC), whole-body control, or real-time trajectory generation. 
• Understanding of computer vision and perception system requirements (latency, accuracy, throughput) 
• Familiarity with CI/CD systems and DevOps practices for robotics (e.g., Docker, containerized deployments) 
• Experience in warehouse automation, industrial robotics, or logistics environments 
• Experience with observability tools and frameworks (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, distributed tracing) 

Pay & Benefits

Our compensation reflects the cost of living across several US geographic markets. At Coupang, your base pay is one part of your total compensation.

The base pay for this position ranges from $164K/year to $282K/year. Pay is based on several factors including market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

General Description of All Benefits

• Annual bonus is 0-20% of the base salary
• Medical/Dental/Vision/Life, AD&D insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) & Health Savings Account (HAS)
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) program
• 401K Plan with Company Match
• 18-21 days of Paid Time Off (PTO) a year based on the tenure
• 12 Paid Holidays
• Paid Parental leave
• Pre-tax commuter benefits
• MTV- [Free] Electric Car Charging Station

General Description of Other Compensation

“Other Compensation” includes, but is not limited to, bonuses, equity, or other forms of compensation that would be offered to the hired applicant in addition to their established salary or wage scale.

Recruitment Process and Others

Recruitment Process

• Application Review - Phone Interview - Onsite (or Virtual Onsite) Interview – Offer

• The exact nature of the recruitment process may vary according to the specific job and may be changed due to scheduling or other circumstances.

• Interview schedules and the results will be informed to the applicant via the e-mail address submitted at the application stage.

Details to Consider

• This job posting may be closed prior to the stated end date for application if all openings are filled.

• Coupang has the right to rescind an offer of employment if a candidate is found to have submitted false information as part of the application process.

• Coupang does not discriminate against disabled applicants or those with veteran status. We are proud to offer equal opportunities for all applicants.

Privacy Notice

• Your personal information will be collected and managed by Coupang as stated in the Application Privacy Notice located below: https://www.coupang.jobs/privacy-policy/

Coupang is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or gender (including pregnancy, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, transgender status), national origin, age, disability, medical condition, HIV/AIDS or Hepatitis C status, marital status, military or veteran status, use of a trained dog guide or service animal, political activities, or affiliations, citizenship, or any other characteristic or class protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. If you need assistance and/or reasonable accommodation in the recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at [email protected].