SW and Controls Engineer

At Contoro Robotics, we're on a mission to solve labor challenges through advanced robotic solutions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, our fast-growing startup is transforming the supply chain industry with our flagship warehouse automation technology. Our team is made up of top-tier experts in robotics, AI, and logistics, working together to push the boundaries of automation.

We’re looking for talented and ambitious individuals to join us on this journey—helping shape the future of robotics while growing alongside a world-class team. If you're passionate about innovation, problem-solving, and making a real-world impact, we want to hear from you!

We're standing up a brand-new automation product, and we're looking for a software-leaning generalist to own the software and controls that make it work as one machine, from sensing and perception, through motion and robotics, to the controls and conveyance that tie it together.

What makes this role unique is the starting point. We're not building from zero: the company has established engineering teams that have already built and proven a number of modules across vision, motion planning, cloud, and autonomy. The ideal system leverages these existing building blocks and integrates them into a new product, rather than reinventing each piece. You'll be the person who figures out what to reuse, what to build new, and how to make it all work together.

This is an early, hands-on individual-contributor role. You'll start alongside a small team of 1-2 mechanical and electrical engineers, this software role, and a few interns, and own the software and controls backbone for the new product. As the product matures, the team will grow, and you'll have shaped the foundation it grows on.

• Own the System End-to-End

  • Own the product as one system: tie perception, motion and robotics, controls, and conveyance together into a coordinated, reliable machine.

  • Define the interfaces, data flow, and sequencing across the system (perception decides, motion executes) and own its behavior end-to-end.

• Software & Integration

  • Work with the company's vision, motion planning, cloud, and autonomy teams to identify which proven modules to build on, and integrate them into the new product.

  • Establish a common module backbone where it counts, particularly the perception AI stack and the cloud infrastructure, so the new product stays aligned with shared platforms rather than diverging.

  • Build the production software backbone that runs the system: device communication, orchestration and state management, logging, and the data pipelines that connect perception outputs to motion and control.

  • Write maintainable, testable code; lean on the company's experienced platform teams for CI/CD, infrastructure, and shared tooling rather than rebuilding it.

• Perception & Vision

  • Design and build the rig that legibly captures the required scene across the product's range of inputs, including readable text, labels, and barcodes.

  • Optics design: camera/lens selection, field of view, working distance, depth of field, and resolution, plus lighting and synchronized triggering for fast, repeatable capture.

  • Develop or adapt the models that turn captured images into actionable data: identification, pose detection, label and barcode reading, and OCR where needed.

  • Take models from prototype to production; evaluate the right mix of classical CV, deep learning, depth, and cloud/local inference.

• Controls & Motion

  • Bring up and integrate PLC, motion, robot, and I/O (conveyors, actuators, sensors, and safety) into the control system.

  • Coordinate robot and motion with sensing, actuation, and conveyance; tune for throughput and reliability on real flow.

• Deployment & Commissioning

  • Commission, calibrate, and validate the system on-site; debug across software, controls, and mechanical/electrical boundaries.

  • Deploy at customer sites, measure performance on real-world flow, and iterate.

• Education: Minimum B.S. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, or a related field (or equivalent industry experience).

• Technical Expertise:

  • Strong software engineer first: proficient in Python, comfortable architecting and shipping production software.

  • Has brought up industrial automation systems end-to-end, integrating software, computer vision, motion, PLC/controls, and hardware into a working machine.

  • Hands-on with robotics middleware (e.g., ROS/ROS2) and PLC platforms; comfortable working close to the hardware.

  • Generalist mindset: willing to cross software, controls, and electromechanical boundaries to get the system working.

  • Comfortable integrating and building on existing modules and shared platforms rather than reinventing them.

• Soft Skills:

  • Excellent communication and collaboration across software, mechanical, electrical, and the broader engineering teams whose modules you'll build on.

  • Thrives in an early-stage, build-from-scratch environment with high ownership and ambiguity.

• Able to work on-site at Contoro's office in Austin, TX.

• Experience with computer vision: 1D/2D barcode decoding, label detection, and OCR; 6-DoF pose estimation, depth cameras + CV, or tools like Roboflow.

• Real-time or motion control, robot programming, and safety/interlock integration.

• Exposure to material-handling, or warehouse-automation environments.