Senior Research Engineer, Planning and Behavior

Department: Software Engineering

Location: Santa Clara

Employment Type: FullTime

As a Senior Research Engineer, Planning and Behavior, you will lead the design and deployment of the systems that determine how our robots move, decide, and safely interact in dynamic, human-centered environments. You’ll architect production-ready motion planning and behavioral decision-making frameworks that balance safety, reliability, efficiency, and real-world constraints. Working cross-functionally across perception, localization, controls, and hardware, you’ll deliver robust end-to-end autonomy that performs not just in simulation, but in the field. This is a hands-on, high-impact role where your work will directly shape how Cobot’s robots behave in the real world and scale across growing fleets.

Join us to reimagine the future of human-robot interaction.

Collaborative Robotics is a team of innovators and builders redefining the future of human-robot interaction. We are working to realize a world where robots are a trusted extension of your surroundings. They work, adapt, and react around you. Not the other way around.

This role is located at our Santa Clara, CA headquarters. Cobot will offer a relocation stipend if you are relocating to join our Santa Clara office and currently live more than 50 miles outside of the office location.

Key Responsibilities:

• Architect and deploy robust motion planning and behavior systems for production robotic platforms.

• Develop real-time trajectory generation and optimization algorithms that meet strict safety, latency, and reliability constraints.

• Design and maintain behavior frameworks for task execution, reactive decision-making, and failure handling.

• Integrate planning modules with perception, localization, and control systems to deliver cohesive end-to-end autonomy.

• Identify, analyze, and resolve edge cases observed in field deployments; drive continuous improvement based on real-world data.

• Establish validation, testing, and benchmarking processes for autonomy performance, safety, and robustness.

• Contribute to system-level architecture decisions to ensure scalability across fleets and evolving product lines.

• Mentor engineers and help raise the bar for production-quality autonomy software.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field.

• 5+ years of experience working within engineering teams.

• Proficiency in C++ and Python, with a readiness to learn new languages or technologies.

• Deep expertise in motion planning and behavior algorithms (e.g., sampling-based planning, trajectory optimization, model predictive control, decision trees, behavior trees, reinforcement learning, POMDPs).

• Experience implementing production-grade, high-reliability software on a robot or similar autonomous system.

• Highly motivated teammate with excellent oral and written communication skills.

• Enjoy working in a fast paced, collaborative and dynamic start-up environment as part of a small team.

• Willing to occasionally travel.

• Must have and maintain US work authorization.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in Computer Science, Robotics, or a related technical field.

• Robust background in robotics.

• Background in human-aware planning, shared autonomy, or collaborative robotics.

• Experience with ROS, writing GPU/hardware accelerated algorithms.

• Experience building scalable planning architectures across fleets of robots.

• Experience with simulation tools (Gazebo, CARLA, Isaac Sim, or Unity) and scenario-based testing of navigation and behavior.

• Demonstrated ability to balance research innovation with product timelines and reliability requirements.

The base salary range for this position is $205,000-$225,000 plus equity and comprehensive benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role and experience level. The range reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position in the noted geographic area. Within the range, individual pay is determined by additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

Cobot is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected characteristics. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities in our recruiting process. If you need any assistance or accommodations due to a disability, please let your recruiter know.

To all recruitment agencies: Collaborative Robotics does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our employees. Collaborative Robotics is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.