Backend Software Engineer – Human-Robot Interaction

Team: Engineering

Location: Charlestown, MA

Commitment: Full-Time

Workplace Type: hybrid

About Us

At Pickle Robot, we're on a mission to automate global supply chains with Physical AI. Our robots work alongside warehouse teams to unload trucks and containers — one of the toughest, most understaffed jobs in logistics — making the work safer, faster, and more efficient for the people doing it. Loading trucks comes next, followed by the Dill Autonomy Engine: generalized autonomy that will eventually orchestrate robots across entire logistics processes.

We're looking for a Backend Software Engineer to join our Human-Robot Interaction team and build the systems behind task planning and robotic workflows.

This role sits at the intersection of software engineering and robotics infrastructure. You'll work closely with robotics engineers to design and build backend services that power real robotic systems on the warehouse floor — bringing strong engineering practices, clean code, thoughtful system design, and real attention to performance into an environment where you're not afraid to get close to the hardware.

What You'll Do

• Design and build backend services supporting task planning and autonomy
• Develop scalable, reliable, and performant systems using Python (and C++ where needed)
• Contribute to system architecture and service design within the team
• Build and maintain event-driven systems and messaging-based architectures
• Collaborate closely with robotics engineers to integrate backend systems with real-world workflows
• Continuously improve system maintainability and operational excellence across services
• Participate in code reviews and technical discussions to elevate engineering standards

What You'll Bring

2-5+ years of experience in backend or distributed systems engineering
Strong programming experience in Python, with experience in C++ or another strongly typed language (e.g., Rust, Go, Java)
Experience building or supporting web applications using Flask or REST APIs
Strong understanding of software architecture, concurrency, and distributed system design
Experience building or supporting event-driven systems, messaging frameworks (e.g., Kafka, ROS), or service-oriented architectures
Experience developing systems that interface with hardware, robotics, or real-world operational environments is a plus
Nice to have:
• Experience with Human-Robot Interaction