Lead Autonomy Software Engineer

About the role

Forterra is seeking a senior software engineer with a passion for autonomous systems. In this role, you will design, develop, and field software solutions that enable intelligent behavior in robotics and automation technologies. You will directly support real-world missions across our fleet of ground vehicles operated by our national security customers around the world.

The ideal candidate has a strong software development background, familiarity with robotics and autonomous systems, and proven track record of collaborating with a cross-functional team of engineers, researchers, and product managers to create robust and scalable software for complex systems.

What you'll do

• Bring autonomy into real operations: Integrate and deploy our autonomy stack on customer-bound hardware platforms and validate it in real-world conditions.
• Build with users and stakeholders: Work across the organization and directly with end-users to deliver new behaviors, payload integrations, and emerging mission use-cases.
• Optimize the full system: Take a holistic view of autonomous vehicle behavior—how sensing, compute, controls, and other subsystems interact—and drive overall performance improvements.
• Close the loop from test to deploy: Analyze test results, identify issues and root causes, and collaborate with engineering teams to drive problems to resolution.
• Improve the core autonomy stack: Detect performance shortfalls, shape solution approaches, and implement enhancements in partnership with cross-functional teams.
• Connect product needs to R&D execution: Partner across business development and engineering teams to translate customer requirements into delivered autonomy capabilities.
• Travel: Travel ranging from 10-25% and 25-50% depending on candidate preference and role placement. Ability to commute to Arlington, VA as needed.

Qualifications

• 3 or more years of relevant experience
• B.S. in computer science, engineering, robotics, or related field or relevant experience/show of skill
• Experience in integrating software on hardware products
• Strong programming skills in languages such as C++, Python, or Java
• Solid core software engineering skills: software design, unit testing, debugging
• Ability to consistently deliver production-quality software in a continuously integrated environment
• Strong understanding of algorithms, data structures, and software design principles
• Demonstrates clean, maintainable code and documentation practices
• Experience working in teams and a willingness to proactively solve problems

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in software development for robotics and autonomous systems
• Experience with safety-critical systems (e.g., MIL-STD-882, ISO-26262, DO-178)
• Experience with ROS2
• Experience with state machines and motion / path planning
• Knowledge of navigation, mapping algorithms and robot perception
• Familiarity with real-time operating systems and embedded programming
• Leadership experience on cross-functional software teams

US Salary Range

$150,000—$250,000

The salary range for this role is an estimate and is based on a wide variety of compensation factors. The salary offered to candidates will vary based on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) relevant work experience, education, specialized training, critical expertise, training, and more. Equity in Forterra is included in most of our full-time, high-demand roles and is therefore considered part of Forterra’s overall compensation package. In addition to base salary and equity, Forterra offers competitive benefits for full-time employees including:

• Premium Healthcare Benefits: Three plan options, including an HSA-eligible plan, with Forterra covering 80% of the plan premium for you and your dependents.
• Basic Life/AD&D, short and long-term disability insurance plans 100% covered by Forterra, plus the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your dependents.
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar including a winter break in December.
• Competitive paid time off (PTO) offering 20 days accrued per year.
• A minimum of 7 weeks fully paid parental leave for birth/adoption.
• A $9k annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
• Fully stocked beverage refrigerators with all the Celsius your little heart desires.
• 401(k) retirement savings plan, including traditional, Roth 401(k), and after-tax deferral with company match up to 4%.

Your recruiter will be able to share more information about our salary and benefits offering during the hiring process.

About the Company:

Forterra

Skills:

• Algorithms
• Analysis Skills
• Automation
• Automotive Automation
• Beverages
• Business Development
• C++ Programming Language
• Computer Programming
• Computer Science
• Cross-Functional
• Data Structures
• Debugging Skills
• Documentation
• Embedded Operating Systems
• Embedded Programming Languages
• Engineering
• Hardware-Software Integration
• ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
• Identify Issues
• Java
• Leadership
• Military/DoD Standards
• Performance Management
• Problem Solving Skills
• Process Improvement
• Python Programming/Scripting Language
• Realtime Operating System
• Research & Development (R&D)
• Robotics
• Robotics Software
• Root Cause Analysis
• Safety Systems
• Software Design
• Software Design for Test (SDET)
• Software Development
• Software Engineering
• Supply Chain
• Team Player
• Testing
• Unit Test
• Use Cases
• Vehicle Fleets
• Wheel/Front-End Loader