{"id":801226,"url":"https://alion.io/job/valstad-senior-robotics-software-engineer-motion-planning-manipulation","title":"Senior Robotics Software Engineer, Motion Planning & Manipulation","company":{"id":688524,"name":"Valstad","domain":"valstad.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/valstad","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"is_intermediary":false,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":null},"role":"Robotics","role_family":"Robotics","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Austin, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":119000,"max_usd":229000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":128},"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Drake","optional":false},{"name":"Inverse Kinematics","optional":false},{"name":"MoveIt","optional":false},{"name":"OMPL","optional":false},{"name":"ROS","optional":false},{"name":"ROS-Industrial","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-31T18:02:28Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-31","last_verified_at":"2026-09-23T12:31:10Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":22,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":22},"description":"About Valstad\nValstad is building the machine that builds the ships.\nWe combine industrial robotics, welding, sensing, and AI to turn 3D models into real high-mix ship structure. Our mission is to rapidly expand America's maritime output by 100x.\nOur team works directly with large industrial robots and real manufacturing equipment at our Austin facility. The systems we build will ultimately be deployed across shipyards and industrial facilities throughout the country.\nThe Role\nValstad is seeking a Senior Robotics Software Engineer to build the motion-planning and manipulation systems that convert CAD geometry and manufacturing requirements into reliable robot execution.\nYou will work across the full planning stack, including coordinate frames, kinematics, inverse kinematics, collision checking, constrained Cartesian motion, trajectory generation, external-axis coordination, calibration, simulation, and industrial robot integration.\nOur robots must execute long, process-constrained paths around large steel structures while maintaining precise tool position, orientation, speed, and clearance. They must account for linear rails, fixtures, workpiece variation, controller behavior, and imperfect real-world calibration.\nThis is not a simulation-only role or a position focused on configuring existing planning libraries. You will be expected to understand the underlying algorithms, build production-quality software, and debug the system on physical industrial robots.\nWhat You Will Do\nDevelop motion-planning systems for robotic welding, handling, scanning, inspection, and related manufacturing processes.\n\nConvert CAD-derived process paths into collision-free, executable robot trajectories.\n\nGenerate constrained Cartesian paths while maintaining tool orientation, standoff, process angles, and travel speed.\n\nDevelop strategies for inverse-kinematics selection and continuity along long manufacturing paths.\n\nDetect and avoid singularities, wrist flips, joint limits, collisions, and discontinuous robot configurations.\n\nPlan coordinated motion across industrial manipulators, linear rails, positioners, and other external axes.\n\nDevelop reachability and placement-analysis tools for robots, workpieces, fixtures, and tooling.\n\nIncorporate controller limits, interpolation behavior, blending, acceleration, and process constraints into trajectory generation.\n\nIntegrate robot, tool, fixture, workpiece, and sensor calibration into the planning system.\n\nUse measured workpiece geometry and sensor data to adjust nominal manufacturing paths.\n\nDevelop planning and recovery strategies for operations that cannot be completed in a single robot configuration.\n\nIntegrate generated trajectories with industrial robot controllers.\n\nBuild simulation, visualization, log-replay, and regression-testing infrastructure.\n\nDiagnose discrepancies between planned, simulated, commanded, and physically executed motion.\n\nWork directly with automation, mechanical, welding, and manufacturing engineers during commissioning and production.\n\nHelp define the architecture and technical standards for Valstad’s robotics platform.\n\nWhat We Are Looking For\n5+ years of professional experience developing robotics software, motion-planning systems, or manipulation algorithms.\n\nStrong modern C++ software-development skills.\n\nDeep understanding of rigid-body transformations, coordinate frames, and three-dimensional geometry.\n\nStrong knowledge of forward and inverse kinematics.\n\nExperience developing motion-planning or trajectory-generation systems for robotic manipulators.\n\nExperience with collision detection and constrained Cartesian motion.\n\nExperience debugging software on physical robotic systems.\n\nAbility to reason about numerical stability, geometric tolerances, and difficult edge cases.\n\nStrong software-engineering discipline, including testing, code review, debugging, and maintainable architecture.\n\nAbility to work effectively across robotics, controls, mechanical engineering, welding, and manufacturing.\n\nWillingness to work on-site and spend significant time with physical hardware.\n\nStrongly Preferred\nExperience with industrial robots from FANUC, ABB, KUKA, Yaskawa, or similar manufacturers.\n\nExperience with ROS 2 and ROS-Industrial.\n\nExperience with MoveIt 2, Tesseract, OMPL, TrajOpt, Descartes, Drake, or similar frameworks.\n\nExperience implementing or modifying planning algorithms rather than only configuring existing packages.\n\nExperience planning for robots mounted on linear rails, gantries, or positioners.\n\nExperience optimizing redundant robotic systems with external axes.\n\nExperience maintaining continuous IK solutions along long process paths.\n\nExperience with trajectory optimization, sampling-based planning, or optimization-based inverse kinematics.\n\nExperience with SE(3), Lie groups, Jacobians, differential kinematics, or manipulability analysis.\n\nExperience with robot calibration, hand-eye calibration, TCP calibration, or workpiece localization.\n\nExperience integrating cameras, laser scanners, force-torque sensors, or other measurement systems.\n\nExperience with CAD or mesh geometry processing.\n\nExperience developing simulation, verification, or hardware-in-the-loop systems.\n\nExperience deploying robotic systems into production or customer environments.\n\nExperience with robotic welding, cutting, grinding, inspection, additive manufacturing, or another process-constrained application.\n\nShipbuilding experience is not required. We care more about deep robotics fundamentals, strong software engineering, and evidence that you can make complex robotic systems work reliably outside the laboratory.\nWhat Success Looks Like\nValstad can reliably convert manufacturing intent and CAD geometry into safe, feasible, and executable robot trajectories.\nLong manufacturing paths run without unexpected singularities, joint-limit failures, wrist flips, collisions, or discontinuous IK solutions. Calibration and sensor data flow cleanly into planning. Simulated behavior closely matches physical execution.\nPlanning failures are diagnosable rather than mysterious. Representative production scenarios are automatically tested. Engineers can reproduce hardware issues using logs and simulation.\nMost importantly, Valstad’s robotic cells become less dependent on manual programming and individual expert knowledge. New structures can move from engineering data into production faster, with less intervention and greater reliability.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6473,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Robotic Software & Control Systems"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-12T07:56:33Z"}],"liveness":{"score":49,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.658,"p_room":0.75,"age_days":22,"expected_fill_days":26,"reasons":["conf:0","velocity","win:late"],"computed_at":"2026-09-23T05:45:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/valstad-senior-robotics-software-engineer-motion-planning-manipulation","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/valstad-senior-robotics-software-engineer-motion-planning-manipulation.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-09-23T17:08:03Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers"}}