Sr. Staff Engineer / Principal Robotics SLAM and Positioning Lead - Santa Clara, California, United States of America
$198,600 - $297,800 USD yearly
Originally posted 15 May 2026 by the employer.
Heterogeneous compute (CPU/GPU/DSP/NPU) architecture for production SLAM and state estimation stacks.
About the role
As Principal Robotics SLAM and Positioning Lead, you will serve as the technical owner and architect for core localization and mapping services across robotic platforms. The role focuses on developing modular SLAM, calibration, and state estimation stacks optimized for Qualcomm SoCs using heterogeneous compute across CPU, GPU, DSP, and NPU engines.
What you'll do
- Own the end-to-end architecture, service boundaries, APIs, data contracts, and performance envelopes for SLAM and positioning services. - Lead the design and implementation of calibration, state estimation, localization, SLAM map management, and re-localization services. - Implement real-time multi-sensor fusion including VIO, VSLAM, LiDAR-inertial, and GNSS using factor-graph or filter-based estimation. - Partner with robotics middleware, controls, perception, and hardware teams to integrate localization services with navigation and planning stacks. - Establish SLAM KPIs for accuracy, robustness, latency, and recovery behavior, while optimizing algorithms for Qualcomm SoCs. - Drive CI/CD practices, test automation, and release readiness criteria across simulation and real robot deployments.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field with 6+ years of Systems Engineering or related experience (or Master's degree with 5+ years, or PhD with 4+ years). - Experience working in lab environments with lab machinery or hazardous chemicals (such as glue).
Nice to have
- 8 years of experience developing SLAM, localization, or state estimation systems for real-world robotic or autonomous platforms. - Proficiency in C with production-grade software engineering practices. - Deep understanding of multi-sensor fusion, calibration, and probabilistic estimation running continuously on real robots. - Experience with service-oriented or middleware-centric robotics architectures such as ROS2/DDS-based systems. - Familiarity with map lifecycle management, fleet-scale localization, or cloud-assisted robotics workflows. - Background in diagnostics, observability, or health monitoring for safety-critical systems. - Experience optimizing robotics workloads on embedded or heterogeneous compute platforms.
Skills: Robotics SLAM, Localization, Mapping, sensor fusion, heterogeneous compute, autonomy
This role has been open 161 days — well above the 86-day median for AI/ML Hardware Engineering roles.
AI/ML Hardware Engineering · AI ML Hardware
|
Open roles in category
507
|
Median days open
86 d
|
Median salary
$236k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Qualcomm | All employers we track in this specialty (507 roles · 76 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 105 | 507 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 739 | 6277 · 144 employers |
| Median days open | 115 d | 86 d (+29 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $236k |
Skills observed across this category: Robotics SLAM, Localization, Mapping, sensor fusion, heterogeneous compute, autonomy
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm (this employer) · 105 open roles · median 115 d
- NVIDIA · 89 open roles · median 57 d
- AMD · 34 open roles · median 107 d
- Micron Technology · 26 open roles · median 58 d
- Mobileye · 20 open roles · median 84 d
- Analog Devices · 18 open roles · median 42 d
How we counted: 507 open AI/ML Hardware Engineering (AI ML Hardware) roles from 76 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 24 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.