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
