Back to jobs
New

Lead Software Engineer, Data Platform

New York, NY

About Viam 

Founded by Eliot Horowitz, co-founder and former CTO of MongoDB, Viam is a novel robotics engineering platform that lets you configure, control, and manage robots intuitively and quickly. We’re inspiring a generation of engineers to solve complicated automation problems with our uniquely powerful suite of software tools.

We’re a ~100-person company headquartered in New York City.

The Engineering Challenge

Building software for machines introduces challenges that traditional software systems rarely face. Devices operate in real-world environments, networks are unreliable, and software must interact with hardware, sensors, and real-time data. At Viam, engineers build the platform and tools that make those machines programmable, observable, and manageable at scale.

About the Role

New York City (Hybrid 3+ days per week in office)

We are looking for a Lead Engineer to own the technical direction and delivery of our Data/ML function. This is a hands-on leadership role where you will manage a team, make architectural decisions, and code.

The Data/ML team owns the infrastructure that moves data from devices to the cloud and makes it usable across the Viam platform. Performance, reliability, usability, and correctness affect every solution built on Viam. On top of that foundation, the team also owns the ML infrastructure that turns that data into models: training workflows, labeling pipelines, and inference in both cloud and at the edge. Some of the interesting challenges they solve: handling an unusually wide variety of data types from devices that are frequently offline, building auto-labeling and training workflows at scale, and expanding cloud inference across multiple model backends.

Tech stack is Go and Python with a Svelte frontend, running ML workloads on GKE using TensorFlow, TFLite, and ONNX, with MongoDB Atlas, GCP, and Azure for the data layer. You will report to the VP of Engineering.

What You'll Own

Engineers at Viam own problems from product design through production and play an active role in shaping how the platform evolves.

  • Lead and develop a team of 5+ engineers: set direction, run planning, ship reliably, and grow the team through coaching, feedback, and performance conversations
  • Write code and ship features alongside your team across the full stack, from backend infrastructure through UI
  • Own the architecture of the data pipeline end to end, from device to cloud, including storage, querying, and the APIs that power the rest of the platform
  • Drive the reliability and performance of ML training and inference infrastructure, from custom training workflows to the services that power auto-labeling and model evaluation
  • Have opinions on what gets built and how users experience it, and bring those into product decisions early
  • Own cross-team problems through to resolution, working closely with Computer Vision, Fleet Management, Mobile, and Solutions Engineering

What You Bring

We are looking for a technical lead with strong systems judgment and product instincts who can set direction and stay hands-on.

  • You have led engineers and know how to develop them, not just manage them
  • You have a background building and scaling backend or platform infrastructure in production
  • You have shipped APIs and UIs and think about both as part of the same product problem
  • You have sound judgment on system design and tradeoffs under real constraints
  • You have product instincts and use them: when something is being built the wrong way, you say so early
  • You make decisions with incomplete information and have a bias toward shipping over planning
  • You have a track record of driving cross-team projects from ambiguity to production
  • Experience with data-intensive systems, streaming pipelines, or ML infrastructure

Experience with robotics or IoT is not required.

How We Work

Our culture emphasizes ownership, curiosity, and decisive execution.

  • This space has brand new challenges and we all have an appetite to learn
  • Good work in production beats perfect work in review
  • We know that the best teams help each other succeed through feedback

The salary for this role is between $220,000 - 250,000 /year. Your exact offer will vary based on factors, including experience level, skillset, market location, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company. We recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced, or more senior, than this job description as posted. In these situations, the updated salary range will be communicated to you as a candidate.

Full-time Benefits

Viam’s base salary range for this role is posted above. In addition to cash compensation, Viam offers a comprehensive Total Rewards package that includes equity grants, health benefits, and more.

  • 100% covered medical/dental/vision insurance plans, commuter benefits
  • 25 days paid vacation and generous holiday observances
  • Free lunch every day that you’re in the office
  • One Medical Membership
  • Citi Bike memberships
  • Monthly wellness stipend to be used for a variety of fitness-related items like gym memberships, fitness classes, fitness equipment, and more
  • Paid parental leave
  • Reproductive Health Benefits, including Fertility Benefits and Abortion Access Travel Benefits
  • Yearly Learning and Development Budget for your own personal learning goals

Values:

  • Vision Driven
  • Collaborate Openly
  • Act Decisively
  • Succeed Through Diversity
  • Hold Ourselves Accountable
  • Lead with Curiosity

To all recruitment agencies: 

Viam does not accept unsolicited agency resumes or calls from recruitment agencies or search firms. Please do not forward resumes to our jobs alias or Viam employees. Viam is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at Viam? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Viam’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.