Careers at Shelduck AI
Robotics Development Engineer – Autonomous Drones
Experience: 2–3 Years | Full-time, Bhubaneswar | Robotics / Autonomous Systems
About the Role
We are turning AI into Physical AI—building autonomous drones that see, think, decide, and act in the real world to protect farmland from wildlife.
We're looking for a hands-on Robotics Development Engineer with strong ROS 2 and C++ expertise to help build, integrate, and deploy the software that powers our autonomous drone platform.
This is a high-ownership role where you'll work across robotics software, real hardware, sensors, flight systems, and field testing to solve challenging real-world problems.
What You'll Do
- •Develop production-quality robotics software using ROS 2 and modern C++.
- •Develop software for autonomous flight, mission execution, navigation, return-to-base, docking, and automated recharging.
- •Integrate software with flight controllers, actuators, and onboard systems including GPS, IMU, cameras, LiDAR, telemetry, and other robotic sensors.
- •Design robust state machines, communication, health monitoring, and fault-handling mechanisms.
- •Debug and resolve complex issues across software, hardware, sensors, networking, and robotics middleware.
- •Optimize systems for reliability, performance, and real-world operating conditions.
- •Participate in simulation, system integration, drone testing, and field trials.
- •Collaborate with embedded, electronics, mechanical, and autonomy teams.
Must-Have
- •2–3 years of hands-on experience in robotics, drones, autonomous systems, or a related field.
- •Strong ROS 2 development experience.
- •Excellent C++ skills with strong knowledge of modern C++, STL, OOP, memory management, and multithreading.
- •Strong Linux/Ubuntu, Git, CMake, and debugging skills.
- •Experience integrating software with real robotic hardware.
- •Strong understanding of sensors, coordinate frames, state machines, and robotic systems.
- •Excellent problem-solving and debugging ability with a practical, hands-on approach.
Good to Have
- •PX4 / ArduPilot / MAVLink / MAVROS / Gazebo
- •Navigation, localization, sensor fusion, or SLAM
- •Computer vision / OpenCV / LiDAR / PCL
- •Docker and CI/CD
- •Raspberry Pi
- •Networking, distributed systems, or real-time systems
- •Experience with autonomous docking, charging, or robotic manipulation
Why Join Us?
- •Build real autonomous drones — your software will fly on physical systems, not just simulations.
- •Solve hard robotics problems — from autonomous missions and docking to automated battery recharge and continuous operation.
- •High ownership and impact — own meaningful parts of the robotics stack and see your work directly influence the product.
- •Work across software and hardware — C++, ROS 2, sensors, flight systems, test rigs, and real-world deployments.
- •Fast-paced startup environment — work closely with multidisciplinary engineers and solve problems that have no ready-made answers.
The Ideal Candidate
Someone who loves C++, ROS 2, robots, and difficult problems — and is equally comfortable writing code, debugging a physical system, and figuring out why something failed in the real world.
Strong hands-on ability matters more to us than the number of years on your resume.