The opportunity

We are supporting an international engineering organisation expanding its Physical AI and autonomous systems capability across Germany.

They are looking for an experienced Robotics Architect to design complete mobile and autonomous platforms, connecting embedded software, sensors, localisation, navigation, controls, simulation and cloud infrastructure.

This is a senior, client-facing role combining technical architecture with hands-on engineering leadership. You will help customers turn complex operational requirements into autonomous systems that can operate reliably outside controlled environments.

Projects may include autonomous mobile robots, industrial vehicles, outdoor machinery, drones and multi-robot fleets.

What you’ll be doing

• Define the end-to-end architecture of mobile robotics and autonomous vehicle systems
• Design the interaction between perception, localisation, mapping, planning, control and vehicle hardware
• Select suitable sensors, compute platforms, embedded technologies and communication protocols
• Architect navigation systems using SLAM, GNSS, LiDAR, radar, cameras, IMUs and other sensor inputs
• Develop approaches for route planning, obstacle avoidance, trajectory generation and motion control
• Integrate robotic software with actuators, drive systems, safety components and vehicle control units
• Design systems capable of coordinating multiple robots, vehicles or mixed-vendor fleets
• Decide how functionality should be divided across onboard compute, edge infrastructure and cloud services
• Build reusable architectures that can support different vehicles, operating environments and customer use cases
• Oversee simulation, digital-twin and virtual validation strategies before deployment onto physical platforms
• Guide projects from early technical discovery and prototyping through to production deployment
• Run customer workshops and translate operational challenges into system requirements and engineering roadmaps
• Present architecture choices, trade-offs and technical recommendations to engineering and business stakeholders
• Lead technical reviews and provide direction to multidisciplinary robotics teams
• Support pre-sales activities, including solution design, technical scoping and feasibility assessments

What we’re looking for

• Extensive experience designing software or system architectures for mobile robots, autonomous vehicles or intelligent machinery
• Strong programming experience with C++ and Python
• Previous responsibility as a Robotics Architect, Systems Architect, Principal Engineer or Technical Lead
• Deep understanding of ROS or ROS 2 and production-grade robotics software development
• Strong knowledge of autonomous navigation, localisation, mapping and SLAM
• Experience with motion planning, trajectory generation, obstacle avoidance and control systems
• Practical knowledge of sensor fusion involving technologies such as LiDAR, radar, cameras, IMUs and GNSS
• Experience integrating software with embedded computers, sensors, actuators and electromechanical systems
• Understanding of real-time computing, vehicle communication and hardware-software integration
• Familiarity with technologies such as ARM, STM32, RTOS, CAN, EtherCAT, PLCs or similar industrial platforms
• Experience with robotics simulation environments such as NVIDIA Isaac Sim, Gazebo, CARLA, Webots or comparable tools
• Knowledge of validating autonomous systems in both simulated and physical environments
• Familiarity with multi-robot coordination, fleet management or multi-vendor system integration
• Understanding of cloud and IoT platforms such as AWS, Azure or GCP
• Experience with Linux, automated testing, CI/CD and deployment pipelines for robotics software
• Strong systems thinking with the ability to balance safety, performance, latency, reliability and cost
• Comfortable leading technical discussions directly with customers
• Professional German and English communication skills

Why consider it?

• Architect complete autonomous systems rather than working on one isolated component
• Work across mobile robots, autonomous vehicles, outdoor machinery and multi-robot fleets
• Operate at the intersection of robotics software, embedded systems, vehicle hardware and cloud infrastructure
• Influence projects from initial customer workshops through to real-world deployment
• Help build reusable robotics platforms and technical standards within a growing Physical AI practice
• Remain technically involved while taking ownership of architecture and engineering direction
• Flexible working within Germany, with travel to customer sites and engineering facilities when required