Robotics Software Engineer

About Polybee

This position is with Polybee, a startup incubated by SGInnovate, focused on revolutionizing fresh produce agriculture using autonomous pollination via drones combined with AI-driven yield forecasts. This technology aims to generate over $20 billion in value for farmers by enhancing crop yields and minimizing waste. Polybee’s autonomous drone pollination technology can increase yields by up to 20%, while its accurate forecasting enhances profitability through better harvest efficiency and pricing strategies. The product is live and expanding at leading growers in Australia and New Zealand, with current progress in collaboration with major fresh produce companies in the United States. Polybee maintains headquarters in Singapore and Melbourne and is backed by prominent investors including Temasek Foundation, SEEDS Capital, and elev8 VC.

Role Overview

You will serve as a Robotics Engineer at Polybee’s Singapore headquarters, reporting to the VP of Engineering and working within the Product Engineering team.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy autonomous onboard navigation systems for drones, including localization, mapping, and obstacle avoidance, enabling operation in complex agricultural environments beyond preset routes.
• Create visual-inertial localization systems using sensor fusion (cameras, IMU, and other sensors) to provide reliable positioning in GPS-challenged or visually repetitive settings.
• Implement real-time obstacle detection and avoidance algorithms such as depth estimation, occupancy mapping, and path replanning that conform to onboard computing and power limitations.
• Integrate autonomy software with drone flight control and mission-planning components to ensure safe and dependable in-flight decision-making.
• Manage the entire development pipeline from sensor data acquisition through algorithm implementation, optimization, testing, and iteration, bridging lab simulation and field deployment.
• Collaborate with computer vision and flight-planning teams to synchronize autonomy outputs with mission objectives and integrate them with existing flight and imaging workflows.
• Develop telemetry, logging, and evaluation metrics tools to monitor system performance, including localization accuracy and obstacle detection reliability, facilitating continual system improvements.
• Conduct extensive testing in simulated environments and real-world field conditions across various crop types, lighting, and terrain; work with operations teams to troubleshoot live deployment issues.
• Promote a high-quality coding culture emphasizing unit and integration testing, code review processes, and CI/CD standards for safety-critical flight autonomy software.

Candidate Profile

• 2 to 4 years of experience developing and deploying robotics or autonomous systems software in production or advanced research environments, preferably involving aerial or mobile robots.
• Proficient in C++ and Python programming, with practical experience using computer vision and robotics toolkits such as OpenCV and ROS/ROS2.
• Solid experience with localization and mapping technologies including visual-inertial odometry, SLAM, and sensor fusion methods like Kalman or particle filtering, supported by a strong theoretical base in geometry, state estimation, and probabilistic modeling.
• Expertise in real-time perception pipelines for obstacle detection and avoidance, optimizing algorithms for execution within embedded systems’ computational and energy constraints.
• Hands-on experience with embedded companion computers such as NVIDIA Jetson platforms and optimizing code for their specific resource parameters.
• Understanding of drone flight control systems, mission and waypoint planning, and coordinate frames; experience with DJI products is not mandatory.
• Competence in field testing, failure diagnosis through telemetry/log analysis, and iterative refinement based on operational feedback.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams including computer vision, flight-planning, and operations.
• Additional advantageous skills include expertise in 3D reconstruction, photogrammetry, or structure-from-motion techniques.
• Valued prior contributions such as patent filings, published conference papers, or proprietary research outputs.