STEM OPT Robotics Engineer Jobs
Robotics Engineer roles in automation, manipulation, and autonomous systems qualify for STEM OPT's 24-month extension when your degree falls under an eligible CIP code. Your employer must be enrolled in E-Verify, and you'll work under a signed I-983 training plan tied directly to your engineering degree.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
The Robotics Software Engineer III - Infrastructure is responsible for designing and enabling the foundational infrastructure that supports the full lifecycle of autonomous robotic systems, from source code to deployment and field observability. This position provides high leverage across perception, planning, controls, simulation, and safety teams by delivering durable platforms, shared workflows, and guardrails that allow product teams to move quickly without compromising reliability, traceability, or compliance. The Robotics Software Engineer III - Infrastructure sits at the intersection of robotics software, DevOps, simulation, and MLOps. This position focuses on building scalable systems and standards rather than acting as a first responder for day-to-day operational issues. Success is measured by reduced friction for autonomy engineers, improved release confidence, and infrastructure becoming a competitive advantage rather than a bottleneck.
Responsibilities
- Design and enable shared infrastructure supporting the end-to-end robotics software lifecycle: Source, Build, Test, Simulate, Deploy, Monitor.
- Standardize build systems and CI/CD pipelines across robotics software, embedded systems, and simulation environments.
- Define and manage artifact versioning strategies for software binaries, firmware, configuration, calibration data, maps, and vehicle-specific parameters.
- Establish platform standards, reference architectures, and best practices used across multiple product teams.
- Enable large-scale Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL), and regression simulation workflows.
- Integrate simulation results into CI pipelines with clear pass/fail criteria and reporting.
- Support scenario-based testing, coverage tracking, and regression analysis.
- Provide infrastructure and tooling to improve correlation between simulation results and real-world vehicle behavior in collaboration with simulation and vehicle integration teams.
- Design and evolve shared infrastructure supporting the lifecycle of machine learning models used in autonomy systems.
- Enable dataset versioning, lineage tracking, training reproducibility, and model promotion workflows.
- Define standards for model packaging, deployment to vehicles, runtime monitoring, and rollback mechanisms.
- Partner with perception and autonomy teams to enable safe and performant model deployment, while domain teams retain ownership of model design and performance outcomes.
- Build and maintain reliable pipelines for deploying software and models to development vehicles, test fleets, and production systems.
- Enable vehicle-level observability through logging, metrics, and distributed tracing.
- Support rapid diagnosis of field issues and feedback loops into development, testing, and simulation environments.
- Enable traceability for safety-critical systems, including the ability to identify what software, model, and configuration ran on a specific vehicle at a given time.
- Support functional safety requirements by enabling reproducible builds, preserving validation evidence, and supporting audits and certification activities (e.g., ISO 3691-4, ISO 13849).
- Collaborate closely with Functional Safety Engineering to ensure infrastructure aligns with compliance and certification needs.
- Act as a force multiplier for autonomy engineers by reducing duplicated tooling and infrastructure maintenance overhead.
- Make pragmatic trade-offs between development velocity, system reliability, and safety requirements.
- Mentor engineers on platform usage, infrastructure best practices, and scalable system design.
- Influence technical direction across teams without direct people management responsibility.
- Other duties and projects, as assigned.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
Education:
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field, required
- Master's Degree or equivalent industry experience in robotics, autonomous systems, or distributed systems, preferred
Experience:
- 4 years of experience in software infrastructure, platform engineering, or DevOps position(s), preferred
Computer Skills:
- Hands-on experience with Linux-based systems and containerized environments, required
- Experience working with CI/CD systems, build tooling, and artifact management solutions, required
- Familiar with Bitbucket and Jira automation, preferred
- Practical experience with MLOps, including dataset and model versioning and deployment pipelines, preferred
- Familiar with robotics middleware such as ROS or ROS2, preferred
- Experience supporting complex, distributed, real-time, or hardware-integrated systems, required
- Proven ability to design and maintain systems used by multiple teams and products, preferred
Additional Requirements:
- Exposure to simulation-heavy environments or systems that integrate tightly with physical hardware.
- Experience in robotics, autonomous systems, or embedded software development, preferred
- Experience with SIL and HIL testing methodologies, preferred
- Experience working in safety-critical or regulated environments, preferred
- Understanding of vehicle systems, sensors, and real-world deployment constraints, preferred
OTHER DETAILS
Work Hours:
- Generally, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm with occasional irregular hours depending on workload.
Travel Requirements:
- Occasional (25%-50%) Travel may be required to support field testing and collaboration.
Compensation:
- This is a salary position paid biweekly.
About us
ArcBest® (Nasdaq: ARCB) is a multibillion-dollar integrated logistics company that helps keep the global supply chain moving. Founded in 1923 and now with 14,000 employees across 250 campuses and service centers, the company is a logistics powerhouse, using its technology, expertise and scale to connect shippers with the solutions they need — from ground, air and ocean transportation to fully managed supply chains. ArcBest has a long history of innovation that is enriched by deep customer relationships. With a commitment to helping customers navigate supply chain challenges now and in the future, the company continues to invest in purpose-built technology such as ArcBest View™, its digital logistics platform that brings quoting, booking, shipment visibility and reporting into one connected experience.
INTRODUCTION
The Robotics Software Engineer III - Infrastructure is responsible for designing and enabling the foundational infrastructure that supports the full lifecycle of autonomous robotic systems, from source code to deployment and field observability. This position provides high leverage across perception, planning, controls, simulation, and safety teams by delivering durable platforms, shared workflows, and guardrails that allow product teams to move quickly without compromising reliability, traceability, or compliance. The Robotics Software Engineer III - Infrastructure sits at the intersection of robotics software, DevOps, simulation, and MLOps. This position focuses on building scalable systems and standards rather than acting as a first responder for day-to-day operational issues. Success is measured by reduced friction for autonomy engineers, improved release confidence, and infrastructure becoming a competitive advantage rather than a bottleneck.
Responsibilities
- Design and enable shared infrastructure supporting the end-to-end robotics software lifecycle: Source, Build, Test, Simulate, Deploy, Monitor.
- Standardize build systems and CI/CD pipelines across robotics software, embedded systems, and simulation environments.
- Define and manage artifact versioning strategies for software binaries, firmware, configuration, calibration data, maps, and vehicle-specific parameters.
- Establish platform standards, reference architectures, and best practices used across multiple product teams.
- Enable large-scale Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL), and regression simulation workflows.
- Integrate simulation results into CI pipelines with clear pass/fail criteria and reporting.
- Support scenario-based testing, coverage tracking, and regression analysis.
- Provide infrastructure and tooling to improve correlation between simulation results and real-world vehicle behavior in collaboration with simulation and vehicle integration teams.
- Design and evolve shared infrastructure supporting the lifecycle of machine learning models used in autonomy systems.
- Enable dataset versioning, lineage tracking, training reproducibility, and model promotion workflows.
- Define standards for model packaging, deployment to vehicles, runtime monitoring, and rollback mechanisms.
- Partner with perception and autonomy teams to enable safe and performant model deployment, while domain teams retain ownership of model design and performance outcomes.
- Build and maintain reliable pipelines for deploying software and models to development vehicles, test fleets, and production systems.
- Enable vehicle-level observability through logging, metrics, and distributed tracing.
- Support rapid diagnosis of field issues and feedback loops into development, testing, and simulation environments.
- Enable traceability for safety-critical systems, including the ability to identify what software, model, and configuration ran on a specific vehicle at a given time.
- Support functional safety requirements by enabling reproducible builds, preserving validation evidence, and supporting audits and certification activities (e.g., ISO 3691-4, ISO 13849).
- Collaborate closely with Functional Safety Engineering to ensure infrastructure aligns with compliance and certification needs.
- Act as a force multiplier for autonomy engineers by reducing duplicated tooling and infrastructure maintenance overhead.
- Make pragmatic trade-offs between development velocity, system reliability, and safety requirements.
- Mentor engineers on platform usage, infrastructure best practices, and scalable system design.
- Influence technical direction across teams without direct people management responsibility.
- Other duties and projects, as assigned.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
Education:
- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related field, required
- Master's Degree or equivalent industry experience in robotics, autonomous systems, or distributed systems, preferred
Experience:
- 4 years of experience in software infrastructure, platform engineering, or DevOps position(s), preferred
Computer Skills:
- Hands-on experience with Linux-based systems and containerized environments, required
- Experience working with CI/CD systems, build tooling, and artifact management solutions, required
- Familiar with Bitbucket and Jira automation, preferred
- Practical experience with MLOps, including dataset and model versioning and deployment pipelines, preferred
- Familiar with robotics middleware such as ROS or ROS2, preferred
- Experience supporting complex, distributed, real-time, or hardware-integrated systems, required
- Proven ability to design and maintain systems used by multiple teams and products, preferred
Additional Requirements:
- Exposure to simulation-heavy environments or systems that integrate tightly with physical hardware.
- Experience in robotics, autonomous systems, or embedded software development, preferred
- Experience with SIL and HIL testing methodologies, preferred
- Experience working in safety-critical or regulated environments, preferred
- Understanding of vehicle systems, sensors, and real-world deployment constraints, preferred
OTHER DETAILS
Work Hours:
- Generally, 8:00 am - 5:00 pm with occasional irregular hours depending on workload.
Travel Requirements:
- Occasional (25%-50%) Travel may be required to support field testing and collaboration.
Compensation:
- This is a salary position paid biweekly.
About us
ArcBest® (Nasdaq: ARCB) is a multibillion-dollar integrated logistics company that helps keep the global supply chain moving. Founded in 1923 and now with 14,000 employees across 250 campuses and service centers, the company is a logistics powerhouse, using its technology, expertise and scale to connect shippers with the solutions they need — from ground, air and ocean transportation to fully managed supply chains. ArcBest has a long history of innovation that is enriched by deep customer relationships. With a commitment to helping customers navigate supply chain challenges now and in the future, the company continues to invest in purpose-built technology such as ArcBest View™, its digital logistics platform that brings quoting, booking, shipment visibility and reporting into one connected experience.
See all 77+ STEM OPT Robotics Engineer Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new STEM OPT Robotics Engineer Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding STEM OPT Authorization as a Robotics Engineer
Verify your CIP code before applying
Check that your degree's CIP code appears on the official STEM Designated Degree Program List. Robotics-adjacent degrees in mechanical, electrical, or computer engineering each carry different codes, and your DSO needs the right one to authorize your extension.
Confirm E-Verify enrollment before accepting offers
Ask the recruiter for the company's E-Verify employer ID number before signing anything. Many robotics startups and defense contractors aren't enrolled, which disqualifies them as STEM OPT sponsors regardless of their technical credibility or interest in hiring you.
Align your I-983 training goals to the job description
Your I-983 training plan must connect specific learning objectives to your STEM degree. For robotics roles, map plan goals to motion planning, sensor integration, or controls systems work listed in the offer letter so USCIS can see a direct educational connection.
Target defense and manufacturing companies with active LCA filings
Use the OFLC Wage Search to identify employers who have filed Labor Condition Applications for Robotics Engineers. Companies with recent LCA activity in your target metro already have payroll infrastructure and HR familiarity with work authorization processes for this role.
Search for robotics roles on Migrate Mate
Migrate Mate filters Robotics Engineer listings to employers verified for STEM OPT hiring. You can browse by location and industry sector, so you're not wasting applications on companies that have never navigated OPT extension paperwork before.
Start the cap-gap conversation early with your employer
If your OPT expires while an H-1B visa petition is pending, cap-gap rules let you keep working. Raise this timeline with your employer during the offer stage, not after your EAD expiration date is three weeks away, so HR can file on time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my engineering degree qualify me for the STEM OPT extension as a Robotics Engineer?
It depends on your specific degree's CIP code, not just the field name. Degrees in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science commonly qualify, but a general engineering technology degree may not appear on the STEM Designated Degree Program List. Your DSO can confirm whether your exact degree and institution combination is eligible before you apply for the 24-month extension.
What does the I-983 training plan need to include for a Robotics Engineer role?
The I-983 must document specific learning objectives that connect your day-to-day robotics work to your STEM degree. For this role, that means detailing how tasks like motion planning, ROS development, sensor fusion, or controls systems engineering build on your academic training. Your employer also must provide a supervising mentor and attest to the training's educational value. USCIS can audit these plans, so vague or boilerplate language increases your risk.
How do I verify that a robotics company is enrolled in E-Verify before I accept a job offer?
Ask the recruiter directly for the company's E-Verify employer ID number. You can also search the E-Verify employer search tool, which is publicly accessible through the E-Verify program website. Many robotics startups and early-stage automation companies aren't enrolled, so this check matters before you commit. If the employer won't confirm enrollment or can't provide the ID, they can't legally sponsor your STEM OPT extension.
What happens to my work authorization if my STEM OPT expires while my H-1B is pending?
If your employer filed an H-1B petition on your behalf before your OPT EAD expired, cap-gap protection extends your work authorization automatically until October 1 of that fiscal year. You don't need a new EAD during this window, but your employer must have filed before the deadline. USCIS issues a cap-gap extension to your I-20, which your DSO updates. Traveling internationally during cap-gap carries re-entry risk, so consult your DSO first.
Where can I find Robotics Engineer jobs where the employer already understands STEM OPT?
Migrate Mate lists Robotics Engineer roles filtered for employers familiar with STEM OPT hiring and E-Verify enrollment. Working with employers who have prior OPT experience matters because they already know how to complete the I-983, handle the E-Verify Form I-9 process, and meet the 24-month reporting obligations. That reduces onboarding friction and lowers the chance of a compliance gap that could disrupt your status.