TerraFirma is transforming construction through automation and bold engineering—faster, safer, and cheaper. Join us in building the future from Texas. Backed by Kleiner Perkins.
About the role
You will design and deploy the algorithms that enable heavy machinery to perform complex tasks with advanced automation in dynamic, unstructured environments. Your focus will span state estimation, motion and trajectory planning, and control, taking ideas from simulation through to real-world deployment on multi-ton robotic platforms. You will architect systems that fuse data from diverse sensors, optimize movement on challenging job sites, and execute with reliability under real-time constraints.
What they're looking for
- B.S. in Robotics, Mechanical/Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field
- 2+ years of professional or advanced research experience delivering robotic software from first‑principles modelling through hardware deployment
- Proven track record owning large deliverables and driving multi‑disciplinary roadmaps
- Hands‑on deployment of Kalman filters or equivalent estimators on real‑world platforms (e.g., drones, tractors, autonomous vehicles, aircraft, rockets)
- Deep familiarity with sensor‑fusion toolchains and libraries
- Expertise in different motion planning frameworks
More about this role
At TerraFirma, we’re redefining how the world moves earth for construction. Founded by former SpaceX engineers and backed by Bain Capital Ventures, TerraFirma is automating construction to make it faster, cheaper, and safer.
At SpaceX, we were part of the teams that built the largest rocket in human history, launched the largest constellation of satellites ever made, and delivered connectivity to millions of people worldwide. What we learned was simple: infrastructure is everything.
At Starbase, the biggest barrier to launching missions to Mars was not building the rocket. It was how slow, expensive, and complex it was to build the infrastructure around it. We lacked buildings, roads, water, power, communications, and waste management, and constructing them took far more time and resources than it should have.
From a first-principles perspective, that doesn't make sense. It shouldn't be this hard or costly to create the foundations for progress. That’s when we realized something important: the same engineering mindset that enabled us to tackle space exploration and mass manufacturing could be applied to infrastructure. By bringing the principles of simplification, iteration,...
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