Manager, Robotics Software

About the role

ICON is looking for a Manager to lead and grow the Robotics Software team. You will lead a team of robotics engineers, and your first job is their growth, retention, and effectiveness. You will pair that with your technical expertise to help set standards, make architecture decisions, and give leadership a clear picture of capacity and risk. This role is based at ICON's Austin, TX headquarters and reports to the Director of Robotics.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

- Manage, coach, and grow a team of robotics engineers and contractors.

- Hold weekly 1:1s and maintain a written development plan for every direct report.

- Own the interview and onboarding process and be accountable for whether new hires succeed past six months.

- Establish, document, maintain, and enforce engineering standards for robotics software, including definition of done, code review expectations, test coverage, and subsystem ownership.

- Partner with staff engineers on architecture and design review, providing independent technical judgment.

- Work with project, product, and design teams to plan and contend for engineering capacity across concurrent programs, making allocation decisions explicit and planned.

- Provide the Director of Robotics and cross-functional stakeholders with a clear, current picture of the team's work, risks, and constraints.

- Support the internalization of technical knowledge and IP from external development partners.

- Protect capacity for tooling, test infrastructure, and technical debt against feature and field schedule pressure.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

- B.S. in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related field.

- 7+ years developing production software in C++ or a comparable systems language, with hands-on experience in robotics, embedded, motion control, or real-time systems.

- 3+ years directly managing teams of five or more engineers, including performance management and hiring.

- Sufficient current technical depth to evaluate architecture and design decisions and to disagree credibly with senior technical staff.

- Ability to earn trust, maintain positive and professional relationships, and contribute to a culture of performance.

- Experience leading a team that ships software running on physical hardware, subject to external and dated milestones.

- Experience establishing engineering standards and test infrastructure.

- Demonstrated success developing engineers with specific examples of people you have moved to higher levels of responsibility.

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

- Background in large-scale industrial robotics, construction technology, autonomous systems, or heavy equipment.

- Familiarity with real-time Linux, EtherCAT or comparable industrial fieldbus protocols, and motion control architectures.

- Exposure to functional safety standards for robotic systems (ISO 13849, IEC 62061, or equivalent).