Staff Software Engineer at Foxglove

Build the data infrastructure for robots operating in the real world. Robotics is moving from research labs into production across factories, warehouses, vehicles, and field deployments. When robots fail, behave unexpectedly, or need to be improved, engineers rely on data to understand what actually happened. At Foxglove, we build the observability, visualization, and data infrastructure that makes that possible. Our tools are used by robotics and autonomous systems teams to ingest, store, query, replay, and analyze massive volumes of multimodal sensor data from live systems and from production fleets. About the Role We're looking for a product-minded Software Engineer who is equally comfortable reasoning through a user problem and diving deep into a performance-critical systems codebase. You'll work across our desktop and web visualization app, our data ingestion and streaming backend, and the on-robot client libraries that tie everything together. This is a generalist role, you'll follow the work wherever it takes you, whether that's optimizing a decode path in Rust, extending our MCAP tooling in C++, wiring up a new data source in TypeScript, or partnering with customers to understand what's slowing them down. Key Responsibilities - Build and ship product features end-to-end, from understanding customer needs to writing, reviewing, and deploying code - Work across our technology stack — from on-device Rust/C++ libraries to cloud backend services to the browser-based visualization app - Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks in data-intensive pipelines: ingestion, decoding, streaming, and rendering - Contribute to MCAP and other open-source libraries that the broader robotics community relies on - Collaborate directly with customers and the robotics community to understand requirements and validate solutions - Help maintain the high engineering bar and culture of ownership that defines the Foxglove team What We're Looking For - 5+ years of experience writing production software - Strong proficiency in C++ and/or Rust, you've shipped systems-level code that handles real load - Experience writing highly performant, memory-efficient code - A product instinct: you care not just about correctness but about whether the thing you built actually solves the user's problem - Comfortable moving across the stack, you may not be an expert in every layer, but you can get oriented quickly and contribute meaningfully - Excellent written and verbal communication skills - Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, small team environment Bonus Points: - Experience in robotics, autonomous vehicles, or related embedded/real-time systems - Familiarity with ROS, ROS 2, or other robotics middleware - Experience with data serialization formats or binary protocols (MCAP, Protobuf, CDR, etc.) - JavaScript/TypeScript and frontend experience - Familiarity with public cloud infrastructure (GCP, AWS, Azure) or Kubernetes What We Offer - $300 monthly budget towards commuter benefits or building your personal workspace (remote only) - Competitive equity grant in a Series B company - Medical, Dental, Vision, and Term Life insurance coverage at 100% for employees and 75% for dependents - 401(k) matching up to 4% - 4 weeks vacation, plus holidays and winter break - All expenses paid company off-sites 1-2× per year WHY JOIN US - Impact: Own growth at a fast-growing, high-leverage moment for the company. - Mission: Accelerate the development of the next generation of robotics and embodied AI. - Team: Work with world-class engineers, designers, and researchers passionate about open-source and developer tools. - Ownership: Drive initiatives end-to-end, with high autonomy and visibility.