Software Engineer, Autonomy

Monumental is automating on-site construction with robotics and software. Our mission is to make construction primarily software-defined and work towards a future where beautiful, bespoke buildings are built within a single day with minimal labour.

We’re a growing team of about 80 engineers and technicians, with backgrounds from companies like Palantir, Qualcomm, Dyson, Shopify, Tesla, Meta, and 1X. As we are still in the early days of building the company, this is a unique opportunity to become an early employee in a high-growth, high-ambition startup environment. From Day 1, you’ll work alongside an experienced founding team backed by top-tier investors.

Monumental is based near Artis zoo in the Plantage, in the city center of Amsterdam. Our beautiful office features an in-house workshop and robot testing facility. We are not a hybrid or remote-first company: we value collaborating together in the office five days a week.

About you and this role

We’re looking for software engineers with deep expertise in software engineering and robot autonomy—including perception, localization, mapping, and planning. Help us bring our robots to life and join our mission to automate the construction industry, creating affordable, beautiful, high-quality housing for everyone.

At Monumental, we’re building an operating system to enable on-site construction with robotics. Our software stack covers everything from 3D reconstruction (via photogrammetry) of construction sites, design of 3D structures, supply chain management, path planning, and inverse/forward kinematics for our robots.

Some of the challenges you might work on include:

1. Designing and modeling a localization and control system for our autonomous ground vehicles to navigate construction sites
2. Building obstacle detection for uneven and dynamic terrains with moving people, robots, and objects
3. Developing planning and decision-making code to accomplish tasks robustly
4. Implementing production-level code at the appropriate level (embedded firmware in C++, or our application layer in Rust) to bring your algorithms to life

What you'll be responsible for

• Designing and implementing localization algorithms (e.g., visual-inertial SLAM), ensuring the use of appropriate sensors and logic to determine world-space position, including sensor fusion as needed
• Designing and implementing motion planning and autonomy behaviors, both for early prototypes and production use, using C, C++, Rust, or Python (not Matlab simulations)
• Designing and building tools for debugging, analysis, and performance evaluation of your algorithms
• Applying software engineering best practices and writing production-level code
• Conducting root cause analysis and general debugging when issues arise
• Taking full ownership of projects, from idea to prototype to finished product

What we’re looking for

• Experience implementing algorithms for localization, mapping, perception, and motion/behavior planning in real robotic systems
• Practical and theoretical knowledge in modeling, signal processing, motion planning, sensor fusion, collision avoidance, and SLAM
• Industry experience building and deploying production systems in C, C++, Python, Rust, or similar languages
• Strong software engineering skills and best practices, including version control with git, unit testing, and automated deployment
• Basic familiarity with Linux systems and conventions (e.g., comfortable SSH’ing into machines to troubleshoot issues)
• Experience in troubleshooting and root cause analysis
• Preferred: experience building prototypes in a zero-to-one environment and/or top student teams
• B.Sc. in Electrical, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Controls System Engineering, or equivalent

Why Monumental?

Joining Monumental means being at the forefront of a movement to transform the construction industry. Your work will have the potential to impact not just our company, but the future of how we build. If you’re driven by innovation, eager to tackle complex challenges, and ready to make a tangible difference, we want to hear from you.

For open applications (if you don’t see an exact role match), please reach out to us at: iwanttojoin@monumental.co – share the most interesting or challenging project you’ve worked on, why you want to join, and your CV or portfolio.

If you don’t meet all the qualifications but are excited about Monumental and believe you can help us solve difficult problems, please get in touch. We welcome generalists with a demonstrated ability to focus on outcomes, get things done, and learn as they go.