{"id":754352,"url":"https://alion.io/job/contoro-robotics-sr-robotics-engineer-motion-planning","title":"Sr. Robotics Engineer, Motion Planning","company":{"id":176878,"name":"Contoro Robotics","domain":"contoro.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/contoro-robotics","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"Robotics","role_family":"Robotics","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Austin, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":125000,"max_usd":251000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":181},"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Inverse Kinematics","optional":false},{"name":"Motion Planning","optional":false},{"name":"MoveIt","optional":false},{"name":"NLP","optional":false},{"name":"OMPL","optional":false},{"name":"Path Planning","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"ROS","optional":false},{"name":"Gazebo","optional":true},{"name":"Isaac Sim","optional":true},{"name":"MuJoCo","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-10T20:46:32Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-07-10","last_verified_at":"2026-10-13T09:30:33Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":94,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":94},"description":"Join Contoro Robotics - Revolutionizing Warehouse Automation with Cutting-Edge Robotics\nAt Contoro Robotics, we're on a mission to solve labor challenges through advanced robotic solutions. Headquartered in Austin, TX, our fast-growing startup is transforming the supply chain industry with our flagship warehouse automation technology. Our team is made up of top-tier experts in robotics, AI, and logistics, working together to push the boundaries of automation.\nWe’re looking for talented and ambitious individuals to join us on this journey-helping shape the future of robotics while growing alongside a world-class team. If you're passionate about innovation, problem-solving, and making a real-world impact, we want to hear from you!\nSenior Robotics Engineer, Motion Planning\nContoro Robotics is an Austin-based company building autonomous truck-unloading robots for warehouse operations. We deploy reliable, high-throughput robotic systems that handle heavy, unstructured freight in real logistics settings every day.\nThe Role\nWe are looking for a Senior Robotics Engineer to lead the next phase of motion-performance improvement for our robot arm. You will be the technical lead for motion planning and trajectory generation, owning how we turn planned motion into fast, smooth, dynamically feasible trajectories under real hardware constraints. Your focus is reducing cycle time while maintaining safety and payload stability, using strong fundamentals in kinematics, dynamics, constrained optimization, and hardware-backed performance validation. This is a senior individual-contributor role: you set technical direction for motion planning, own the hardest trajectory-optimization problems, and mentor other engineers, working closely with the autonomy team.\nResponsibilities\nTrajectory Optimization\nOwn trajectory generation and time parameterization: turn planned paths into time-optimal, dynamically feasible trajectories that minimize cycle time while respecting velocity, acceleration, jerk, and torque limits of the arm and payload.\n\nDrive the next generation of our motion performance through advanced time parameterization, optimization-based motion (optimal control, QP/NLP), and payload-aware planning that meaningfully increases throughput.\n\nEnsure smooth, jerk-limited motion that maintains payload stability and hardware safety, and robustly handle near-singularity and joint-limit edge cases without stalls or unsafe motion.\n\nPath Generation and Planning Architecture\nOwn geometric path planning for a high-DOF manipulator moving boxes through cluttered, partially occluded container environments.\n\nEvaluate and evolve the planning architecture and toolchain (e.g., MoveIt, OMPL, CHOMP/TrajOpt), making the build, adopt, and extend decisions for the planning stack.\n\nIntegrate perception outputs (container frame, box poses, occupancy) into the planning scene, reasoning about collision objects such as container walls, ceiling, and neighboring boxes.\n\nPerformance Validation\nDefine motion-performance metrics, benchmark alternative approaches, and validate gains both in simulation and on real hardware.\n\nUse physics-based and kinematic simulation to develop and de-risk changes before they reach the fleet.\n\nTechnical Leadership\nSet technical direction for motion planning and drive multi-quarter improvements in cycle time and reliability.\n\nMentor junior and mid-level engineers and raise the team's bar on motion-planning craft, testing, and reliability.\n\nCollaborate across autonomy, perception, controls, and robot software to deliver end-to-end motion that is both fast and reliable across diverse box configurations.\n\nQualifications\nExperience: 5+ years of professional experience in motion planning, trajectory optimization, or manipulator control, with production or real-hardware deployment and a track record of owning motion performance end-to-end.\nEducation: B.S. or M.S. in Robotics, Computer Science, Mechanical/Electrical Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent industry experience).\nTechnical Skills:\nStrong grounding in classical trajectory generation and time-parameterization methods (e.g., TOTG/TOPP-RA, Ruckig, S-curve profiles), with the ability to derive, adapt, and implement them in production systems.\n\nDeep grasp of manipulator kinematics and dynamics - forward/inverse kinematics, collision checking, velocity/acceleration/jerk and torque constraints, and singularity and joint-limit handling for 6/7-DOF arms.\n\nBackground in optimization-based motion (optimal control, QP/NLP-based trajectory optimization).\n\nDeep proficiency in C++ (modern standards), Python, and ROS 1 or ROS 2.\n\nExperience validating cycle-time and reliability improvements on real hardware, backed by simulation.\n\nSoft Skills:\nStrong problem-solving and data-driven decision-making; able to own ambiguous, high-impact problems and decompose them into actionable work.\n\nExcellent communication - able to present complex technical concepts clearly to cross-functional teams and mentor other engineers.\n\nNice to Have\nHands-on expertise with MoveIt and motion planning frameworks (OMPL, RRT/RRT-Connect/PRM, CHOMP/TrajOpt).\n\nExperience with industrial manipulators (e.g., KUKA) and real-time joint control.\n\nExperience planning for multi-object or multi-pick manipulation.\n\nExperience optimizing for throughput or cycle time in a production robotics or logistics setting.\n\nExperience with GPU-accelerated or learning-based motion planning in addition to classical methods.\n\nExperience with physics-based or kinematic simulation for planning validation (Isaac Sim, Gazebo, MuJoCo, Bullet).\n\n*Recruitment Agencies: Please do not contact our employees regarding this role. We partner with a select group of approved recruiting firms and do not accept unsolicited outreach or candidate submissions.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5823,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Robotic Software & Control Systems","Logistics & Warehouse Robotics","Industrial Robotics"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-11T16:41:54Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 7","filings_12m":7,"filings_prev_12m":1,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":117500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-03T21:08:04+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":5}],"liveness":{"score":40,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.729,"p_room":0.55,"age_days":94,"expected_fill_days":74,"reasons":["conf:2","velocity","win:tail"],"computed_at":"2026-10-13T05:45:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/contoro-robotics-sr-robotics-engineer-motion-planning","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/contoro-robotics-sr-robotics-engineer-motion-planning.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-13T13:19:21Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":20559,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-14T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":176878},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=176878"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcontoro-robotics-sr-robotics-engineer-motion-planning"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fcontoro-robotics-sr-robotics-engineer-motion-planning"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fcontoro-robotics-sr-robotics-engineer-motion-planning"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/contoro-robotics-sr-robotics-engineer-motion-planning\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcontoro-robotics-sr-robotics-engineer-motion-planning"}]}