Do you want to work with the 15th fastest-growing startup in Europe? If so, you’re in the right place.

AssetCool is one of Europe’s fastest-growing startups, building the fastest path to more power on the grid.

We’re tackling one of the most urgent challenges in the global energy transition: grid congestion. Electricity demand is rising fast; driven by electrification, AI and data centres. While traditional grid upgrades take years, demand exists today. The grid isn’t ready.

AssetCool delivers robotic grid upgrades that physically increase the capacity of existing transmission lines by up to 30%, without rebuilding infrastructure. Using advanced robotics and proprietary photonic coatings, we unlock data-centre-scale capacity in weeks to months, not years and at a fraction of the cost and disruption of conventional approaches.

Our technology goes beyond capacity. We reduce losses, prevent corrosion, cut corona noise and generate high-value operational data that supports smarter grid operation and maintenance. Our systems are already deployed globally, and we just raised a big funding round from leading energy and climate investors.

AssetCool is one of the most innovation-driven companies in the UK energy sector and we’re scaling fast! If you’re ambitious, mission-driven and excited to work on real deployments that strengthen the industry that really matters, AssetCool is where you can make it happen.

Role Overview

We are looking for a Junior Robotics Software Engineer to join our software team and help develop the platform that powers our robotic systems.

You will develop, integrate, test and maintain software components across areas such as robot control, hardware interfaces, communications, data acquisition, diagnostics and system state management. This is a hands-on role covering the full development lifecycle: from early prototypes and simulation through to hardware integration, laboratory testing and deployment on real robotic platforms. You will work within a multidisciplinary team to build software that is modular, testable, maintainable and robust enough for challenging outdoor environments.

The role suits a recent graduate or early-career engineer with relevant experience from academic projects, placements, internships, open-source contributions, personal projects or professional work.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain modular C++ components, libraries and applications within AssetCool's robotic software platform.
• Contribute to software for robot operating modes, state management, task sequencing and fault handling.
• Support integration of communication interfaces between high-level services, embedded controllers and physical hardware.
• Write and maintain unit, integration and system-level tests.
• Integrate and test software with sensors, actuators, controllers and other robotic hardware.
• Investigate software and system-level issues using logs, telemetry, debuggers and diagnostic tools.
• Participate in code reviews and contribute to coding standards, Git workflows, CI and documentation.
• Support simulation, laboratory, software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop and occasional field-testing activities.
• Produce clear technical documentation: design notes, interface descriptions, test results and development updates.

Required Skills & Experience

• A degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, Electronic Engineering or a related subject, or equivalent practical experience.
• Practical programming experience with Modern C++, including the C++ Standard Library.
• Understanding of core software engineering principles: modular design, data structures, object-oriented programming, resource management, debugging and maintainability.
• Experience with C++ build systems and tools (CMake, compilers, debuggers) in a Linux-based environment, including command-line tools.
• Familiarity with Git and collaborative development workflows.
• Experience writing or working with unit or integration tests.
• A basic understanding of communication protocols used in embedded or industrial systems, including timing, addressing, reliability, error handling and diagnostics.
• A structured approach to problem-solving and good written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across disciplines.
• A real interest in robotics and in developing software that runs on physical systems.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Test-driven development and designing for testability, including C++ testing/mocking frameworks (GoogleTest, GoogleMock, Catch2 or similar).
• Finite state machines, behaviour trees, event-driven architectures or comparable supervisory-control approaches.
• Robotics middleware such as ROS or ROS 2, and simulation environments such as Gazebo.
• Python for scripting, test automation, tooling, data processing or diagnostics.
• Multithreaded, asynchronous, event-driven or real-time development.
• Publish-subscribe systems, RPC or service-based communication; and lower-level industrial/embedded protocols (CAN-based or fieldbus).
• Integrating sensors, actuators, motor controllers or embedded devices.
• Containerisation (Docker), static analysis, sanitizers or automated code-quality tools.
• Common robotics concepts: coordinate frames, sensor data, localisation, motion control or path planning.
• Relevant experience from a robotics competition, university team, open-source project, placement, internship or personal build.

Why Join AssetCool?

• Work on groundbreaking technology revolutionising the power grid.
• Fast-growing startup with significant industry traction and large-scale projects.
• Collaborative, innovation-driven team with exciting career growth opportunities.
• Competitive salary and flexible work options

Research shows that some candidates may hesitate to apply unless they meet every listed requirement. If this role excites you but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification, we still encourage you to apply. You might be exactly who we're looking for, either for this role or another opportunity within our team.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds. We’re committed to building an inclusive, supportive workplace where everyone can thrive, regardless of age, disability, gender identity, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

If you have a disability or any specific requirements and need adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process, just let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate your needs.

We may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid missing out.