Staff Software Engineer - Platform

JOB SUMMARY

As a Staff Platform Engineer, you will define the technical strategy for how our robotics software is built, packaged, and delivered — from a developer's laptop to a walking humanoid robot. You will own the vision and architecture for our C++ build platform, transforming it into a world-class system that scales with a growing engineering organization and an increasingly complex hardware portfolio.

This role goes beyond building great infrastructure — it requires driving alignment across software, robotics, and embedded teams, shaping engineering culture around build reliability and developer velocity, and ensuring that platform investments are tightly coupled to company-wide program milestones. You'll be the technical authority on build systems and developer tooling, operating as a force multiplier that makes every engineer at Apptronik faster and more effective.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES or KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Define and own the long-term technical roadmap for the C++ build platform, aligning infrastructure investments with software program timelines and organizational growth
• Architect scalable build infrastructure — including remote caching, remote execution, and cross-compilation for x86, ARM, and Jetson targets — and drive strategic technology decisions through RFCs that gain cross-team alignment
• Set the standards for hermetic, reproducible builds and artifact provenance that become the engineering-wide default
• Own high-performance build environments and the end-to-end artifact lifecycle — from build output through packaging, versioning, and delivery to physical robots
• Architect and optimize CI/CD pipelines at scale; instrument build health metrics and establish SLOs for build performance, CI reliability, and developer iteration speed
• Manage the C++ dependency ecosystem, balancing developer flexibility with reproducibility and long-term maintainability
• Partner with engineering leadership to shape the developer productivity roadmap and advocate for sustained investment in platform infrastructure
• Drive cross-team initiatives to consolidate fragmented build patterns, eliminate toil, and resolve systemic productivity problems that span team boundaries
• Mentor engineers across the organization on build best practices, acting as the go-to technical authority for build systems and developer infrastructure
• Serve as the escalation point for complex, cross-domain issues spanning application code, build systems, containerization, and infrastructure

SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS

• Deep expertise with C/C++ and its build ecosystem (e.g., CMake, Bazel, Meson), with the ability to reason about toolchains, linkers, compilers, and build behavior at a systems level
• Proven ability to architect and operate build infrastructure at scale, including CI/CD pipelines, caching systems, and cross-compilation environments
• Strong command of the Linux operating system — including internals, networking, file systems, permissions, and resource management
• Proficiency in scripting and automation (Python, Bash) with an emphasis on building maintainable, production-grade tooling
• Demonstrated experience driving technical strategy beyond your immediate team — through design docs, RFCs, or technical proposals that influenced engineering-wide decisions
• Track record of identifying and solving ambiguous, org-wide technical problems that no single team owns
• Excellent communication skills — ability to translate complex build and infrastructure concepts for diverse audiences and advocate for platform investment to leadership
• Solid understanding of core networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP)

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of relevant experience in a DevOps, Software Engineering, or Build/Release Engineering role.
• A proven track record of supporting software development teams by building and maintaining reliable infrastructure and effective tooling.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
• Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times
• Vision to read printed materials and a computer screen
• Hearing and speech to communicate