Role:
Principal Software Engineer – Platform Owner (Hands-on)
Context:
At Furhat Robotics we build social humanoid robots that talk, listen, and interact with people in the real world.
Our robots are already used by universities, research labs, hospitals, and innovation teams around the world to study and deploy human–AI interaction.
This isn’t a prototype or a pitch deck.
It’s a real, shipped product running globally.
Technically, it’s a rare mix of:
-
hardware
-
realtime systems
-
SDKs
-
cloud services
-
AI/LLMs
-
developer tools
We’re profitable and small (~20 people).
We’re not trying to build a big engineering organization.
We want one very strong engineer who can own the whole platform.
The role (plainly):
You will take full ownership of engineering.
Not manage it.
Not coordinate it.
Own it.
If something breaks, ships late, or feels messy — it’s yours to fix.
If things run smoothly — you did your job.
You’ll work directly with the CEO, our CSO (research), and our product manager.
We have two junior consultants today. You’ll lead them and decide how we build going forward.
What you’ll actually do:
Expect 80–90% hands-on coding/building/fixing.
This is not a management role.
You will:
-
Own the robot platform (Java)
-
Own the SDK (Kotlin)
-
Own internal tools (React)
-
Own APIs and backend services
-
Own cloud & DevOps (AWS/Azure)
-
Run CI/CD and releases
-
Clean up legacy and simplify architecture
-
Break roadmap into shipped features
-
Guide/mentor junior engineers and consultants
-
Hire very selectively when truly needed
When engineering is slow or fragile, you fix the system — not add headcount.
What success looks like:
After 6–12 months:
-
Releases are predictable
- Shipping is faster
-
Fewer fires
-
Cleaner architecture
-
Consultants need less babysitting
-
Furhat engineering has momentum and continues to lead with software capabilities
