FORT brings together the best technologists who have spent their careers working to solve the most complex and dangerous aspects of robotics. 

The company was founded in 2018 by Samuel Reeves, who spent the previous decade making landmine clearance safer through robotics. During this time, Reeves realized that secure communications – considered core infrastructure elsewhere in technology – didn’t exist for robots in fields like construction, agriculture, warehousing, or elsewhere. 

FORT was founded to create a first-of-its-kind Robotics Control Platform (RCP) to empower companies with unique tools to ensure robots cause no harm.

As a Senior Systems Engineer, you will be critical in connecting and advancing our systems to the next level in developing cutting-edge robotics and autonomous systems. This role is integral to defining and managing system-level requirements across hardware, firmware, and cloud software, ensuring seamless integration and alignment. You will be responsible for understanding the system and proactively advancing our processes to avoid last-minute functionality definitions.

We seek a hands-on professional with a software and industrial automation background who can think holistically, manage requirements with traceability, and bring solutions to the table. We encourage you to apply if you are excited about building the future of robotics and autonomous systems in industries like DOD, agriculture, construction, and warehouses.

Responsibilities

  • System Development: Drive the development of advanced safety, security, and operational systems for next-generation autonomous systems.
  • Proactive Process Development: Learn and understand all system requirements, organize and document them, and define forward-looking solutions to avoid project delays.
  • Requirements Management: Lead the generation and organization of platform and product-level requirements with full forward and reverse traceability using tools like Jama or equivalent.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work across hardware, firmware, and cloud software teams to ensure end-to-end system understanding and seamless integration.
  • Stakeholder Engagement: Collaborate to decompose stakeholder requirements into actionable system-level requirements.
  • Problem-Solving: Engage with internal teams and customers to resolve system issues, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of system functionality and user needs.
  • Strategic Thinking: Think holistically about the system and advance its functionality by defining critical next steps and architectural strategies.

Qualifications

  • Experience:

    • 5+ years of experience in developing and integrating complex systems, ideally in industrial automation or hardware-software integration.
    • Proven experience in system-wide solution analysis, requirements development, integration, and quality assurance.
    • Hands-on experience managing technical requirements in a rigorous, standards-driven development process.
    • Background in complex software systems design, with the ability to understand and connect hardware, firmware, and cloud software.

  • Technical Skills:

    • Strong understanding of requirements management tools (e.g., Jama or similar), traceability, and system structure.
    • Familiarity with industrial automation, robotics, and embedded systems.
    • Preferred experience with Bluetooth/BLE, RF products, and safety-critical systems.

  • Competencies:

    • Strong written and verbal communication skills.
    • Ability to think holistically and connect various components of a system.
    • A proactive approach to solving problems and advancing processes.
    • Comfortable working hands-on while contributing to system-level strategy.

  • Education: A B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field is preferred.

  • Work Style: Hybrid with a preference for local candidates who can occasionally come into the office in Philadelphia.

What We’re Looking For

  • A systems thinker who can connect everything and understands the details and the big picture.
  • Someone proactive who can define the next critical steps in development, ensuring we stay ahead of requirements and functionality needs.
  • We need a hands-on engineer comfortable working at an development level who can advance our systems beyond documentation into actionable strategies.
  • A professional with a strong software background and understanding of industrial systems, capable of bridging gaps between hardware and software.
  • Someone who values collaboration and communication, bringing fresh ideas to the team and guiding us on best practices.

Increasingly, today’s worksites require people and machines to collaborate side by side. To ensure control amid increasing automation, FORT’s platform is safe, secure, and dynamic in ways that can’t be achieved by legacy controls or next-gen AI. 

Autonomous machines hold great promise but present new and serious risks. FORT minimizes those risks by ensuring communications integrity over any network – allowing customers to rest assured that their most valuable assets, people, data, and machines are always safe and secure.

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