Meet the Ware Force: Carlos Gonzalez

As a young company, hiring the right people is crucial to success. We’re proud of the culture we’re building at Ware, and want you to meet the people behind our warehouse automation technology. These are the people that make it happen.

For our latest Meet the Ware Force article, we sat down with Carlos Gonzalez, one of our software engineers. Keep reading to learn more about Carlos, and what it’s like working with fully autonomous drones on a day to day basis.

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Name: Carlos Gonzalez

Role: Autonomy Software Engineer

Department: Engineering

Location: San Francisco, CA

Q: Can you start by telling us about your background?

A: I was born in Venezuela and moved to the U.S. when I was five years old. I grew up in Katy, Texas, which is a suburb of Houston. I gained a bachelors and masters degree in electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. My degree had a focus in robotics and I took part in many research projects that worked on robotics and autonomous flying technology. Prior to Ware, I worked at Argo AI on self driving car technology.

Q: What attracted you to joining Ware?

A: I came across Ware when I was researching drones for oil and gas equipment inspection. Ware’s vision and its partnership with Skydio excited me. We’re working with drone technology in a space where its growth isn’t constrained by regulation. 

 The drone industry is particularly difficult because you typically have to deal with regulation from the FAA. Ware is a unique case where you have a new robotics technology that customers love but it isn't subject to the regulations commonly seen in the drone industry. This allows for an unprecedented opportunity for growth, particularly in warehousing. 

Q: What does a typical day in the life of an autonomy software engineer look like?

A: I work with the drones on a day to day basis. My main focus is on the autonomy pipeline, which ranges from coding, to flight planning, testing the hardware, and to the computer vision side of things. On a given day, I could be writing new code for the drone, testing it, and continuing to optimize our inventory scanning flight autonomy for customers.

Q: What do you think is next for the supply chain industry?

A: Automation, automation, automation. In order to continue to scale to meet the demands of e-commerce and a global economy, the systems we have today have to get smoother and faster. Like we saw during the pandemic, the supply chain is critical for society but it’s also fragile. Overcoming the challenges that exist will create immense value for people all over the world.

Q: Before we finish up, can you tell us a fun fact about yourself?

A: I love to play soccer in my spare time. When I was a teenager, I played in the Gothia Cup in Sweden, often referred to as the “World Youth Cup” since over 1700+ teams from 80+ countries compete. I played with a team from Dallas called Stars N’ Stripes and got into the elimination rounds of the competition. Nowadays I play soccer recreationally as it's a great way to exercise and meet new people.