Robot Client SDK Engineer (human)

Your Mission & Challenges

• protoc + buf toolchain for client-side code generation; CI pipelines regenerate clients on every proto change
• Python client SDK: idiomatic wrappers with context managers, async/await variants, IDE completion stubs, pip wheels published to internal PyPI
• C++ client SDK: RAII channel lifecycle, async, language-idiomatic exception hierarchy, Conan/vcpkg packages
• Java client SDK: builder patterns for requests, CompletableFuture, Maven Central artifacts
• Channel lifecycle handling across languages: timeouts, deadline propagation, reconnection logic, TLS/mTLS configuration
• gRPC status to language-idiomatic exception mapping: hierarchical exception types with semantically meaningful subclasses
• Client/server version-skew compatibility tables—published policies on client-server version support, automated compatibility tests
• Semantic versioning aligned with the platform architect, deprecation policy enforcement with linter warnings, migration guides
• Simulation-mode toggle inside the client: same proto interface, simulation backend for offline app development
• Observability hooks per language: structured logging, OpenTelemetry tracing context propagation, Prometheus client metrics
• Reference example applications per language demonstrating canonical patterns: pick-and-place, mode switching, fault recovery, telemetry streaming
• Auto-generated documentation per language: Sphinx (Python), Doxygen (C++), Javadoc (Java); examples kept in sync with API surface
• Internal customer onboarding: skill bundles, evaluation harnesses, R&D notebooks, demo apps—all start from your reference template
• RFC co-review with the Robot Platform Integration Engineer on every proto change

What we can look forward to

• Developer experience with platform SDKs—has shipped client libraries used by external or internal customers.
• Proficient in at least two: modern Python (typing, asyncio, pyproject.toml/wheels), modern C++ (17/20, async patterns, build systems), Java (CompletableFuture, Maven build).
• Hands-on with gRPC ecosystem: protoc, buf, grpc-python, grpc-java, grpc-cpp—has implemented production clients.
• Multi-language packaging: manylinux pip wheels, Conan or vcpkg recipes, Maven Central publishing—experienced with full CI pipelines.
• API design fluency: gRPC/REST/GraphQL, semantic versioning, deprecation policy authorship, backwards-compatibility analysis.
• Documentation tooling: Sphinx, Doxygen, MkDocs; capable of owning end-to-end documentation deliverables.
• Cross-language async patterns: understands trade-offs among sync, async, and streaming gRPC across languages and their ergonomic differences

Nice to have

• Familiarity with robotics or industrial control to discuss latency and timing semantics with robot platform engineers
• Experience writing language bindings for a native library (PyBind11, JNI, SWIG, cppyy)
• Authored OpenTelemetry instrumentation libraries across multiple languages
• Working knowledge of ROS 2 client library design (rclpy / rclcpp)
• Written a developer-portal API reference or SDK tutorial series for external developers