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Staff Software Engineer, Motion Planning (Backend)

viamrobotics
New York, NY Full Time
POSTED ON 12/26/2025
AVAILABLE BEFORE 1/25/2026

Viam helps companies unlock the power of AI, data and automation in the physical world. We provide a single platform for engineers of all disciplines to solve problems together and build solutions that are fast and future-proof. Viam powers solutions across robotics, food and beverage, climate tech, marine, industrial manufacturing, and more. Founded in 2020 by former MongoDB co-founder and CTO Eliot Horowitz, Viam is headquartered in New York City.

Staff Software Engineer (Backend), Motion Planning

As a Staff Engineer on the Motion Planning team, you will build services that enable robots to move effectively within their environments. This includes 3D motion and 2D motion. We are responsible for the development and ownership of a state-of-the-art robotics motion stack, with a focus on enabling success for our users and customers. The current tech stack consists of Golang running on a range of hardware from edge devices to powerful workstations.

We’re solving challenging problems that live at the intersection of software and the physical world. This is far from a solved problem in our industry, and this team develops algorithmic solutions of high complexity that need to perform across a variety of hardware and environments.

This is a hybrid role in which you’ll be in the NYC Office 3 days a week. The team is currently distributed between our New York, NY and Bend, OR.

You'll be:

  • Solving new and unique problems in robotics and deploying applications for real world impact
  • You’ll help turn lab-prototype solutions into factory-ready products that deliver tangible value for our customers.
  • Building and testing on physical robots
  • Collaborating closely with teams across motion planning, motion execution, and perception

We're looking for someone who:

  • Cares deeply about writing performant, scalable, and maintainable code
  • Engineered concurrent and parallel systems to handle high volume data 
  • Developed backend systems in Go or C  
  • Has an affinity for complex, sophisticated problems, and loves solving them with practical solutions
  • Is experienced taking projects from problem formulation through implementation and deployment
  • Can adapt coding style from prototype to production-grade
  • Wants to work with physical hardware

Bonus points if you have:

  • experience productionizing code in the context of hardware development
  • written motion algorithms for the physical world and understands the constraints of real-world execution

Benefits:

The starting salary for this role is $235,000/year. Your exact offer will vary based on a number of factors including experience level, skillset, market location, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company. We recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced, or more senior, than this job description as posted. In these situations, the updated salary range will be communicated to you as a candidate. In addition to cash compensation, Viam offers a comprehensive Total Rewards package that includes equity grants, health benefits, and more.

  • 100% covered medical/dental/vision insurance plans, commuter benefits
  • Competitive salary & equity packages (see below)
  • Reproductive Health Benefits, including Fertility Benefits and Abortion Access Travel Benefits
  • 25 days paid vacation and generous holiday observances
  • One Medical Membership
  • Citi Bike memberships
  • Monthly wellness stipend to be used for a variety of fitness-related items like gym memberships, fitness classes, fitness equipment, apparel, and more
  • Free lunch every day that you’re in the office
  • Paid parental leave

Values:

  • Vision Driven
  • Collaborate Openly
  • Act Decisively
  • Succeed Through Diversity
  • Hold Ourselves Accountable
  • Lead with Curiosity
 

Salary : $235,000

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