Research Engineer, Robotics - Roboticist

The posting, as Ai2 wrote it

Persons in these roles are expected to work from our offices in Seattle. On-site requirements vary based on position and team. If you have questions about on-site work arrangements for this role, please ask your recruiter.

Our base salary range is $128,880 - $193,320, and in addition we have generous bonus plans to provide a competitive compensation package.

Who You Are

You will own the control stack on our physical robots and the path from simulation to them. This is first and foremost a controls role: you will bring up and tune real-time, torque-level control on arms, multi-fingered hands, bimanual systems and humanoids, make it stable and safe enough that researchers run experiments on hardware every day, and build the interfaces that learned policies plug into. Experience with humanoid whole-body control and with Unitree platforms (G1, H1 and similar) is a strong plus, as humanoid and whole-body work is a growing share of the lab. You will also design and build the hardware the research needs, from end-effectors to test rigs. You will work closely with research scientists and the simulation team so that what is learned in simulation shows up as reliable behaviour on hardware.

Who We Are

The Robotics team at Ai2, led by Dieter Fox, uses scalable simulation to study how foundation models scale and generalize for robotics. We focus on manipulation, humanoid and whole-body control, large-scale simulated training, sim-to-real transfer, robot foundation models and skill learning. We publish at CoRL, ICRA, RSS, CVPR, NeurIPS, ICLR and ICML, and everything we build is open source.

Your Next Challenge

• Build and own the real-time control stack: joint, impedance, operational-space and torque control on torque-controlled arms, hands and humanoids, with motion planning, safety layers and the interfaces that learned policies plug into, across embodiments.
• Bring up, tune and stabilize whole-body controllers for humanoids and bimanual systems: QP-based or MPC-based whole-body control, state estimation (IMU, encoders, force/torque), contact handling and fall or fault recovery, and the sim-to-real transfer of learned locomotion and loco-manipulation policies.
• Lead the setup, calibration, maintenance and tuning of our robots: arms, grippers, multi-fingered hands, humanoids, cameras and tactile sensors, across single-arm, bimanual, mobile and legged platforms.
• Diagnose stability, latency and contact problems across hardware, firmware, control and learned policy, using system identification and dynamics models to turn algorithms into reliable real-world behaviour.
• Design and build the hardware the lab needs: end-effectors, fingertips, sensor mounts, fixtures and test rigs, from CAD through 3D printing or machining, including integrating cameras, tactile sensors and hands.
• Build the runtime and tooling around the robots: teleoperation and data collection, logging, monitoring, deployment and operator-facing tools, so the platform sca

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milies are covered by medical, dental, vision, basic life insurance, basic accidental death and dismemberment insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, and an employee assistance program.

• Team members are able to enroll in our voluntary life insurance program, our voluntary accidental death and dismemberment program, our health savings account plan, our healthcare reimbursement arrangement plan, and our health care and dependent care flexible spending account plans.
• Team members are able to enroll in our company’s 401k plan.
• Team members will receive $125 per month to assist with commuting or internet expenses and will also receive $200 per month for fitness and wellbeing expenses.
• Team members will also receive up to ten sick days per year, up to seven personal days per year, up to 20 vacation days per year and twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year.
• Team members will be able to receive annual bonuses and can participate in the long-term incentive plan.

Note: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the team members(s) of this position. Team members will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the team member(s) will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an at will relationship.