Symbotic names robotics pioneer James Kuffner CTO

By Steve Crowe | January 7, 2025

James Kuffner, a pioneer in robotics, has been named chief technology officer at Symbotic, a leading developer of warehouse robots. Kuffner is replacing former CTO George Dramalis, who retired on January 1, 2025. Kuffner will be responsible for advancing Symbotic’s technologies and long-term growth.

Kuffner has had a decorated career in robotics that includes contributions to autonomous vehicles, cloud robotics, and other technologies. He joins Symbotic after spending 9-plus years at Toyota in various leadership roles. He also spent more than six years at Google working on autonomous vehicles and robotics. He co-founded Google’s robotics in 2013 and was part of the initial engineering team that built Google’s self-driving cars, which today is better known as Waymo.

In 2010, he coined the term “cloud robotics” to describe how network-connected robots could take advantage of distributed computation and data stored in the cloud. Kuffner was associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute from 2002 to 2008, leading research and teaching both computer science and robotics.

“James has more than 30 years of leadership experience in robotics,” said Symbotic CEO and chairman of the board Rick Cohen. “He has helped forge groundbreaking technological advances at Toyota, Google and Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute.”

Kuffner is also co-inventor of the rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) algorithm, which has become a key standard benchmark for robot motion planning. He has published over 125 technical papers and holds more than 50 patents.

“After nine amazing years at Toyota, I have decided to embark on a new adventure with Symbotic,” Kuffner wrote on LinkedIn. “There has never been a more exciting time to be developing and deploying advanced robotics and AI technology. Drop me a note if you are interested in joining a world-class team to work on some incredible new projects. We are hiring!”

Symbotic continues to scale

Symbotic won an RBR50 Award from The Robot Report in 2024 as it continues to ride the wave of logistics automation. The Wilmington, Mass.-based company applies high-density storage, mobile robots, and machine learning to help solve complex distribution challenges for some of the world’s leading retailers, wholesalers, and grocers.

Its list of customers includes Walmart, Target, C&S Wholesalers, Albertsons, and others. Walmart has previously said it is implementing the system in all 42 of its regional distribution centers. Walmart owns a stake in Symbotic.

Symbotic generated $1.8 billion in revenue during 2024, representing 55% growth year over year. Symbotic posted revenue of $577 million, net income of $28 million and adjusted EBITDA1 of $55 million for the fourth quarter. The company did post a net loss of $51 million for 2024.

Symbotic recently established a new business entity, Symbotic Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V., to serve customers in Mexico and tap into the growing global demand for warehouse automation.

It also made at least two robotics-related acquisitions in 2024. In August, it acquired substantially all of the assets of Veo Robotics for $8.7 million. Veo’s FreeMove technology supports safeguarding for industrial robots, essentially turning them into collaborative robots.

And in December 2024 it acquired OhmniLabs, a Silicon Valley-based developer of healthcare robots. The companies did not disclose the financial details of the transaction. Founded in 2015, OhmniLabs builds disinfection and telepresence robots. It has used a fully in-house development and manufacturing model that it said sped up its time to market. With the strategic acquisition of OhmniLabs, Symbotic said it will be better positioned to expand its automation capabilities for supply chain customers. It’s also interested in delivering enhanced innovation to customers in the healthcare industry.