# Robotics Engineer, Motion Planning - Company: [Contoro]() - Location: Austin, TX - Team: Automation Engineering - Employment type: Full Time - Posted: July 2, 2026 ## Job description ## **Join Contoro Robotics – Revolutionizing Warehouse Automation with Cutting-Edge Robotics** At **Contoro Robotics**, we're on a mission to solve labor challenges through advanced robotic solutions. Headquartered in **Austin, TX**, our fast-growing startup is transforming the supply chain industry with our flagship warehouse automation technology. Our team is made up of top-tier experts in **robotics, AI, and logistics**, working together to push the boundaries of automation. We’re looking for **talented and ambitious individuals** to join us on this journey—helping shape the future of robotics while growing alongside a world-class team. If you're passionate about innovation, problem-solving, and making a real-world impact, we want to hear from you! ## **Robotics Engineer, Motion Planning** Contoro Robotics is an Austin-based company building autonomous truck-unloading robots for warehouse operations. We deploy reliable, high-throughput robotic systems that handle heavy, unstructured freight in real logistics settings every day. ### **The Role** We are looking for a Robotics Engineer to help improve the reliability and performance of our robot's motion-planning stack on a live production fleet. A significant part of this role is hands-on production support: reproducing field issues, debugging them across motion planning, perception, and controls, and validating fixes on real hardware. You will work closely with our senior motion-planning and autonomy engineers, tuning and integrating motion planning as you grow your depth in the field. ### **Responsibilities** **Production Debugging and Performance Support** * Investigate and help resolve production issues that affect cycle time, pick success, and operator intervention rate, working across motion planning, perception, and controls to find root cause. * Reproduce field failures on real hardware, analyze logs and telemetry, and work with senior engineers to validate root cause and ship fixes. **Motion Planning Implementation and Integration** * Implement and tune planners within the MoveIt ecosystem for collision-free, kinematically feasible motion, with guidance from senior engineers. * Integrate perception outputs (container frame, box poses, occupancy) into the planning scene, reasoning about collision objects such as container walls, ceiling, and neighboring boxes. * Integrate path and trajectory generation with the control stack (MoveIt and ros\_control), and measure cycle-time and throughput impact on hardware. **Hardware Validation** * Run controlled tests on the robot, compare before-and-after throughput, and quantify the impact of changes across diverse box and container configurations. * Collaborate across autonomy, perception, controls, and robot software to deliver reliable end-to-end motion. ### **Qualifications** **Experience:** 1-3 years of professional experience (or equivalent research or internship experience) in motion planning, manipulator control, or robotics software, ideally with real-hardware exposure. Strong recent graduates with excellent fundamentals are encouraged to apply. **Education:** Minimum B.S. in Robotics, Computer Science, Mechanical/Electrical Engineering, or a related field. **Technical Skills:** * Proficient in C++ (modern standards), Python, and ROS 1 or ROS 2. * Working knowledge of MoveIt and at least one motion planning approach (e.g., sampling-based planners such as RRT/RRT-Connect/PRM, or optimization-based planners such as CHOMP/TrajOpt). * Solid grasp of manipulator kinematics - forward/inverse kinematics, collision checking, velocity and acceleration limits, and singularity and joint-limit awareness for 6/7-DOF arms. * Strong debugging instincts and a willingness to dig into hard, ambiguous production issues. * Good communication and eagerness to learn from senior engineers. ### **Nice to Have** * Hands-on experience with industrial manipulators (e.g., UR, KUKA) and real-time joint control. * Familiarity with integrating perception inputs (point clouds, object poses, occupancy maps) into collision-aware planning. * Exposure to time-parameterization tools (TOTG/TOPP-RA, Ruckig, jerk-limited/S-curve profiles). * A controls or electrical background (motor limits, torque, current) useful for hardware-level debugging. * Exposure to physics-based or kinematic simulation (Isaac Sim, Gazebo, MuJoCo, Bullet). ``` *Recruitment Agencies: Please do not contact our employees regarding this role. We partner with a select group of approved recruiting firms and do not accept unsolicited outreach or candidate submissions. ``` ## Apply [Apply on Contoro]() Canonical job page: