Staff Software Engineer - Lift Controls

We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join our Platform Services team. In this role, you will design and develop core supervisory control software responsible for coordinating lift subsystems within our large-scale warehouse automation environments.

You will work at the intersection of distributed systems and physical automation, building high-level control logic that governs lift scheduling, item sortation, fault recovery, and system-wide orchestration. This role requires strong real-time systems thinking, comfort with hardware-adjacent software, and the ability to debug complex interactions across software and electromechanical components.

We are seeking engineers who thrive in a creative, collaborative, and agile development environment and who are passionate about building resilient, high-availability systems that operate safely and reliably in production environments.

What we do

We are a talented team of roboticists and software engineers responsible for delivering intelligent supervisory software that orchestrates carton and tote movement within the Symbotic system. This is a critical subsystem and is deployed at scale across multiple customer sites that operate in 24/7 warehouse environments.

The team is responsible for analyzing emergent system behavior, diagnosing complex failures, and resolving issues that arise from interactions between software, hardware, and physical processes in real-world environments.

What you’ll do

• Design and develop high-level supervisory control systems for lift subsystems within automated warehouse environments.
• Implement real-time distributed software responsible for lift dispatching, traffic coordination, prioritization, and throughput optimization.
• Build fault-tolerant control logic to manage degraded modes, fault isolation, and safe recovery of lift operations.
• Develop software that interfaces with PLC-controlled lift hardware via well-defined messaging and service boundaries.
• Analyze distributed automation systems using performance monitoring, profiling, and debugging tools to identify latency, bottlenecks, and failure patterns.
• Support system bring-up, integration testing, and on-site validation of lift supervisory control functionality.
• Contribute to architecture decisions involving scalability, high availability, and operational resiliency.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with controls engineers, robotics teams, hardware engineers, and field support teams.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related discipline required.
• Minimum of 8 years of professional software development experience using C#, C++, or Java.
• Strong experience building distributed, real-time, or event-driven systems.
• Experience designing supervisory control layers for industrial automation, robotics, or material handling systems preferred.
• Familiarity with PLC-integrated systems and hardware-adjacent software architectures is a strong plus.
• Strong hands-on problem solver with excellent software design and implementation skills.
• Experience with asynchronous and multithreaded programming models.

Nice to have

• Development experience across both Windows and Linux environments.
• Proficiency in cross-platform .NET Core development.
• Working knowledge of Redis in-memory data stores.
• Familiarity with RabbitMQ or similar messaging systems.
• Solid understanding of microservices architectures and common design patterns., * Up to 10% travel may be required. Employees must have a valid driver’s license and the ability to drive and/or fly to client and other customer locations.

Pulled from the full job description

• 401(k)
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance
• Dental insurance, The base range for this position in the posted location is $149,000.00 - $204,600.00 however, base pay offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The compensation package includes medical, dental, vision, disability, 401K, PTO and/or other benefits.

With its A.I.-powered robotic technology platform, Symbotic is changing the way consumer goods move through the supply chain. Intelligent software orchestrates advanced robots in a high-density, end-to-end system - reinventing warehouse automation for increased efficiency, speed and flexibility., Symbotic is an automation technology leader reimagining the supply chain with its end-to-end, AI-powered robotic and software platform. Symbotic reinvents the warehouse as a strategic asset for the world’s largest retail, wholesale, and food & beverage companies. Applying next-gen technology, high-density storage and machine learning to solve today’s complex distribution challenges, Symbotic enables companies to move goods with unmatched speed, agility, accuracy and efficiency. As the backbone of commerce the Symbotic platform transforms the flow of goods and the economics of supply chain for its customers. For more information, visit www.symbotic.com.

We are a community of innovators, collaborators and pioneers who embrace our differences, because we know unique perspectives make us stronger and smarter. Every perspective matters. We depend on the collective voices of our employees, customers and community to help guide us as we build a better place to work - for you and the world. That’s why we’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer.