What are the responsibilities and job description for the Robotics Navigation and Control Engineer position at Cubiq Recruitment?
The Opportunity
300 autonomous robots. Live production environments. Real freight, real trailers, real loading docks, every day.
This isn't a research project and it isn't a pilot. This is a small, high-impact robotics team that has achieved something most companies spend years trying to reach: product-market validation at scale, with robots operating in demanding real-world conditions alongside people and heavy cargo.
The company is now entering its next growth phase. Commercially stable, freshly into a new funding round, and building toward full autonomy across their fleet - they need a Navigation and Control Engineer who has actually shipped this stuff. Someone who knows what robots at scale do, and can get in and do it themselves.
If you've spent your career in simulation, this probably isn't the role for you. If you've tuned controllers on real hardware, dealt with wheel slip and load dynamics, and closed the sim-to-real gap on physical systems - read on.
What You'll Own
- Design, implement, and optimise path planning and trajectory generation for autonomous mobile robots operating in constrained logistics environments
- Develop and tune motion controllers (PID, MPC, or similar) for heavy-payload platforms with real-world dynamics
- Own the localisation stack, integrating sensor-based position estimates into the control loop alongside the perception team
- Implement obstacle avoidance and safety behaviours that work reliably around people and active infrastructure
- Build and validate simulation models against real robot behaviour - currently using Gazebo
- Analyse and improve robot performance using field telemetry and logs from the deployed fleet - the team uses FoxGlove, MQTT, and CloudWatch pipelines
- Contribute to CI/CD pipelines for controls software testing and deployment across the fleet
- Collaborate with perception, hardware, and cloud infrastructure teams on integrated autonomy features
Requirements
Must Have
- 5 years of professional experience developing navigation and control systems for physical robots
- Strong proficiency in C and Python
- Deep understanding of motion planning algorithms (A*, D*, RRT variants, lattice planners, or similar)
- Hands-on experience designing and tuning controllers on real mobile robot platforms
- Production experience with ROS or ROS2 navigation stacks
- Experience with localisation techniques (EKF, particle filters, scan matching, visual odometry)
- Proven ability to bridge the sim-to-real gap - algorithms that work on actual hardware
- Comfortable analysing system behaviour from logs and telemetry
- Strong communication skills - this is a small team and clarity matters
- US Citizen or Green Card holder
Strong Advantage
- Background from AMR, logistics, or warehouse robotics companies
- Experience with Docker, CUDA, and CI/CD infrastructure
- Familiarity with AWS IoT, Greengrass, or edge computing for fleet-scale robot management
- MPC or adaptive control experience
- Master's degree in Robotics, Controls, Mechanical Engineering, or related field - though no academic baseline is required if the field experience is there
Who This Is For
You've shipped navigation software on real robots at real customer sites. You don't need everything handed to you - you know what good looks like and you can go execute. You thrive in the chaos of a small team, take ownership across the full stack, and get energised by the idea that your work is running in production tomorrow, not in two years.
What's On Offer
- Competitive salary depending on experience
- Equity in an early-stage company with strong commercial traction
- Full relocation package to Atlanta - comprehensive coverage available for candidates with families
- Health, dental, and vision coverage
- 401K
- A team small enough that your impact is visible, and a fleet large enough that the problems are real
Interview Process
Two stages: an initial screen, followed by an on-site visit to Atlanta (expenses covered). The on-site includes a facility tour, time with the team, and a technical presentation component.
How to Apply
This role is being recruited by Cubiq Recruitment's Robotics and Autonomy division. To apply or have a confidential conversation before doing so, reach out directly to Pete Dormer.