Chef Robotics is accelerating the deployment of intelligent machines in the physical world starting with food production the sector facing the largest labor shortage in the U.S. with 1.14M unfilled jobs today and 3.1M projected by 2030. These roles cant be offshored making robotics essential to keeping production onshore and strengthening Americas manufacturing base.
Our AI-powered robots automate food prep and assembly in commercial kitchens and food manufacturing and have already produced over 110 million meals in production generating the worlds largest proprietary dataset for deformable food manipulation. Backed by investors including Kleiner Perkins Construct Bloomberg Beta and Promus Ventures and built by a team from Cruise Zoox Google Tesla and Amazon Robotics Chef is rapidly scaling with multiple multi-year contracts and a mission to put an intelligent robot in every commercial kitchen.
About the Role
Chef Robotics is building autonomous robots that work alongside humans in commercial food preparation environments and the platform they run on has to be rock-solid. As a Senior Software Engineer on the Robotics Platform team you own the foundation: the compute OS middleware and networking that everything else depends on. Youll be working on everything from low-level system software to high-bandwidth sensor data logging debugging and performance analysis. Ideal candidates will also be interested in overall product performance and will work closely with senior robotics and perception engineers to debug test and release new autonomy features.
We are a small high-ownership team. We work onsite five days a week and move with startup urgency youll lead the systems-level work that makes those features reliable in production.
In this role you will:
- Lead the upgrade of our autonomy software OS and middleware stack across production systems
- Define software architecture standards release processes and testing practices for platform software
- Own fleet-wide platform reliability diagnose and fix low-level systems issues (drivers networking Linux configuration) across deployed robots
- Investigate and resolve networking and load bottlenecks that affect perception and autonomy algorithm performance
- Build provisioning and configuration tooling that scales robot bring-up with manufacturing
- Integrate new hardware sensors and cameras into the platform; monitor performance across the fleet
- Set the bar for engineering quality well-structured well-tested production-ready code
What You Bring:
- BS MS or PhD in Computer Science Robotics or a closely related field.
- 4 years building production software in Linux environments with strong systems-level expertise
- Experience shipping and maintaining software across a fleet of devices not just individual systems
- Strong fundamentals: networking protocols (TCP UDP PTP) build systems performance profiling memory optimization
- Track record of leading complex multi-component software projects from design to production
- Familiarity with ROS or similar robotics middleware.
Nice-to-have:
- Background in fleet management OTA update systems or large-scale device deployment
- Full-stack or cloud infrastructure experience (monitoring logging observability pipelines)
- Experience using simulation for hardware-in-the-loop or regression testing
- Familiarity with basic mechatronics and electronics
$150000 - $200000 a year
Chef is an early-stage startup where equity is a major part of the compensation package. Our salary ranges are determined by role level and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position. Within the range individual pay is determined by additional factors including job-related skills experience and relevant education or training.
In addition to salary and early-stage equity we offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical dental and vision insurance commuter benefits flexible paid time off (PTO) catered lunch and 401(k) matching.
Chef Robotics is solving one of the hardest problems in AI and robotics and we ship. Our robots are in production today generating real data that trains the next generation of food AI. Backed by Kleiner Perkins Construct Bloomberg Beta and Promus Ventures and built by a team from Cruise Zoox Google Tesla and Amazon Robotics were scaling fast with multiple multi-year enterprise contracts. If you want to build physical AI with real-world deployments and real impact Chef is the place.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process such as reviewing applications analyzing resumes or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed please contact us.
Required Experience:
Senior IC
Chef Robotics is accelerating the deployment of intelligent machines in the physical world starting with food production the sector facing the largest labor shortage in the U.S. with 1.14M unfilled jobs today and 3.1M projected by 2030. These roles cant be offshored making robotics essential to kee...
Chef Robotics is accelerating the deployment of intelligent machines in the physical world starting with food production the sector facing the largest labor shortage in the U.S. with 1.14M unfilled jobs today and 3.1M projected by 2030. These roles cant be offshored making robotics essential to keeping production onshore and strengthening Americas manufacturing base.
Our AI-powered robots automate food prep and assembly in commercial kitchens and food manufacturing and have already produced over 110 million meals in production generating the worlds largest proprietary dataset for deformable food manipulation. Backed by investors including Kleiner Perkins Construct Bloomberg Beta and Promus Ventures and built by a team from Cruise Zoox Google Tesla and Amazon Robotics Chef is rapidly scaling with multiple multi-year contracts and a mission to put an intelligent robot in every commercial kitchen.
About the Role
Chef Robotics is building autonomous robots that work alongside humans in commercial food preparation environments and the platform they run on has to be rock-solid. As a Senior Software Engineer on the Robotics Platform team you own the foundation: the compute OS middleware and networking that everything else depends on. Youll be working on everything from low-level system software to high-bandwidth sensor data logging debugging and performance analysis. Ideal candidates will also be interested in overall product performance and will work closely with senior robotics and perception engineers to debug test and release new autonomy features.
We are a small high-ownership team. We work onsite five days a week and move with startup urgency youll lead the systems-level work that makes those features reliable in production.
In this role you will:
- Lead the upgrade of our autonomy software OS and middleware stack across production systems
- Define software architecture standards release processes and testing practices for platform software
- Own fleet-wide platform reliability diagnose and fix low-level systems issues (drivers networking Linux configuration) across deployed robots
- Investigate and resolve networking and load bottlenecks that affect perception and autonomy algorithm performance
- Build provisioning and configuration tooling that scales robot bring-up with manufacturing
- Integrate new hardware sensors and cameras into the platform; monitor performance across the fleet
- Set the bar for engineering quality well-structured well-tested production-ready code
What You Bring:
- BS MS or PhD in Computer Science Robotics or a closely related field.
- 4 years building production software in Linux environments with strong systems-level expertise
- Experience shipping and maintaining software across a fleet of devices not just individual systems
- Strong fundamentals: networking protocols (TCP UDP PTP) build systems performance profiling memory optimization
- Track record of leading complex multi-component software projects from design to production
- Familiarity with ROS or similar robotics middleware.
Nice-to-have:
- Background in fleet management OTA update systems or large-scale device deployment
- Full-stack or cloud infrastructure experience (monitoring logging observability pipelines)
- Experience using simulation for hardware-in-the-loop or regression testing
- Familiarity with basic mechatronics and electronics
$150000 - $200000 a year
Chef is an early-stage startup where equity is a major part of the compensation package. Our salary ranges are determined by role level and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position. Within the range individual pay is determined by additional factors including job-related skills experience and relevant education or training.
In addition to salary and early-stage equity we offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical dental and vision insurance commuter benefits flexible paid time off (PTO) catered lunch and 401(k) matching.
Chef Robotics is solving one of the hardest problems in AI and robotics and we ship. Our robots are in production today generating real data that trains the next generation of food AI. Backed by Kleiner Perkins Construct Bloomberg Beta and Promus Ventures and built by a team from Cruise Zoox Google Tesla and Amazon Robotics were scaling fast with multiple multi-year enterprise contracts. If you want to build physical AI with real-world deployments and real impact Chef is the place.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process such as reviewing applications analyzing resumes or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed please contact us.
Required Experience:
Senior IC
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