Cobalt Robotics
Cobalt builds autonomous security robots that keep buildings secure by combining the reliability of machines and the friendly face of human-in-the-loop “pilots”. Security costs US companies $33B / year and is a very difficult task for humans to perform because of long monotonous hours.
We have robots deployed to customers throughout San Francisco and are an incredibly fast-moving team - we went from nothing to shipping our first robots in 12 months! We are now 50+ people working from San Mateo, and recently raised our Series B! We're looking for folks who are scrappy, excited, and eager to share their knowledge and expertise with the rest of our team.
Why join us?
We ship complex products - fast! We went from nothing to paid robot deployments in 12 months, and do over-the-air updates to our robots every two weeks.
Our team hails from Google[X], SpaceX, MIT, Harvard, and Georgia Tech. Both founders have deep experience in Robotics and have previously started companies funded by Y-Combinator.
Our Investors at Sequoia, Coatue, and Bloomberg have deep operational experience.
We are collaborative, respectful and fun-loving, and want to hire folks who feel the same way.
Engineering at Cobalt Robotics
We operate on a 2-week sprint cycle, starting with a planning meeting, and ending with demos and an over-the-air update to our robots in the field. Engineers work with product owners and our “pilots” to understand user stories, then work individually to implement them. We frequently whiteboard, debug, and pair code together during implementation. We have several robots in-house and a simulator that engineers use for testing.
Engineering at Cobalt has a flat structure, with all engineers owning parts of the code, proposing new features, and claiming tasks according to their capabilities and interests. Nobody works in a silo, and working outside our core competency is highly encouraged!
All code is merged using Pull Requests, after review for standards and correctness by one or more other engineers. We use a bug tracking system along with several kinds of telemetry to test new code and monitor deployed code. Each sprint ends with a careful QA process prior to deployment.
- Designing systems that combine the strengths of both our human pilots and our automated systems on the robot. i.e. humans and algorithms doing facial recognition together.
- Maintaining the safety and reliability of our robot in the face of potentially faulty hardware and software. What should a robot do if a software update breaks networking, or if a hard drive becomes corrupted?
You will design and build control interfaces that let our pilots control many robots at a time - our designs so far draw inspiration from NASA, DARPA, and video games.
Build dashboards and APIs to monitor the health of Cobalt’s fleet and discover problems in real time - the first line of defense for bringing high performance and reliability to our customers.
Maintain a robust network connection with our robots as they move through buildings with spotty wifi - mapping signal strength and proactively switching access points.
Protect our robots and our cloud infrastructure from hackers and even physical tampering - so we can protect our customers’ locations and their data.
Working at Cobalt Robotics
We are scrappy - we get things done with ⅓ the time and money other companies need. We have strong opinions, weakly held - we discuss problems passionately and respectfully, with a willingness to change our minds. We are kind - we all care about each other and want to have a fun time at work.
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Free Food
Our kitchen is always stocked with healthy, delicious, and simple food. Most people make salads, sandwiches, or Mexican food for meals.
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Gym/Fitness
We have simple exercise equipment at the office, and many of us go jogging together before dinner each day
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Health Insurance
We provide full medical insurance
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Flexible Hours
Some of us are morning people, and some of us stay up until 3am - we all work whatever hours are best for us. Because our robots are primarily active nights and weekends, we encourage everyone to occasionally stay late and watch our operations.
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Work from Home
Feel free to work from home 1 or 2 days a week, especially if you have a long commute
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Team Activities
We do board game nights or movie nights every couple weeks! We aim for early evening for most of our events so that day shift engineers and night shift pilots can both enjoy them.
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Relocation
If you're coming from out of state, we'll help cover some of your expenses for the move!
External Links
- https://www.wired.com/story/i-spent-the-night-with-yelps-robot-security-guard-cobalt/
- https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/cobalt-robotics-introduces-mobile-security-robot
- https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/30/cobalt-raises-more-than-16-million-to-bring-security-robots-to-the-office.html
Interested in this company?
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