Founding Roboticist

Our first product, ROBO-1 combines a low-cost leader-follower robot arm, fixed workstation geometry, matched simulation, and software for recording demonstrations, training policies, running evaluations, and deploying to real hardware.

This is a deeply hands-on role. You will be at the bench soldering, reworking harnesses, debugging bring-up issues, tuning systems, writing code, running experiments, and closing the loop on real hardware. We are looking for someone who is unusually persistent — the kind of person who does not stop when things are messy, ambiguous, or broken, and instead keeps going until the system actually works.

About the Role

We are looking for a Founding Roboticist to help build core robotic systems at Robo. This is not a narrow role focused on just one layer of the stack. We want someone who is excited to work across mechanical, electrical, software, and system-level problems and who is comfortable operating in the real world, where hardware fails, assumptions break, and progress comes from fast iteration.

A big part of this job is taking rough systems and helping turn them into robust ones. That might mean debugging a flaky motor, fixing a power issue, rewriting a control node, improving a fixture, reworking a harness, or figuring out why a setup that looked good in theory is failing on the bench. You should be someone who enjoys that kind of work and takes pride in getting systems fully working, not just mostly working.

As an early member of the team, you will also help shape how we build. That includes architecture, interfaces, validation plans, workflows, and engineering culture. We are looking for someone with strong technical instincts, high ownership, and the ability to move fluidly between experimentation and productization.

What the Work Looks Like

• Debugging motors, sensors, cameras, power systems, communication interfaces, and control loops in the real world
• Bringing up robotic systems from prototype to reliable working hardware
• Designing and refining fixtures, end effectors, workstation setups, and test workflows
• Working across mechanical, electrical, software, and operations to make systems more robust and repeatable
• Writing, debugging, and maintaining robotics software for perception, control, and system integration
• Building and maintaining robotics software stacks using ROS/ROS2
• Running experiments, analyzing failures, and quickly iterating on both hardware and software
• Helping define system architecture, validation strategies, and engineering processes as an early team member
• Closing the gap between a promising demo and a product that works consistently in the real world

What we're looking for

You should be comfortable getting your hands dirty. That means soldering, tracing electrical faults, debugging flaky communication, reading logs, testing assumptions, and doing whatever else it takes to get the robot working. This role is for someone who likes the reality of robotics, not just the idea of it.

We would be especially excited about candidates who have:

• Strong engineering ability in robotics, mechatronics, controls, embedded systems, or adjacent fields
• Experience with robot bring-up, integration, and full-stack troubleshooting
• Comfort working across hardware and software in messy, real-world environments
• Strong bench skills, including soldering, cable and harness work, power debugging, and communication debugging
• Good instincts around root-cause analysis and practical problem solving
• The ability to independently own technical problems and drive them to resolution
• Experience writing software for real robotic systems, ideally in Python, C++, or Rust
• Familiarity with ROS/ROS2 for robotic system development and integration

You Might Be a Great Fit If You

• Want to own systems, not just a narrow slice of the stack
• Care about reliability and productization, not just one-off demos
• Like working on hard technical problems where the answer is not obvious
• Are highly resourceful and comfortable figuring things out with limited structure
• Want to help define what an early robotics company becomes
• Enjoy moving between the bench, the terminal, and the whiteboard
• Have watched BattleBots religiously

Why You Join Robo

• You will work on a true full-stack robotics problem spanning hardware, workcells, simulation, data, and deployment
• You will have real ownership over systems that directly shape the product
• You will help build core infrastructure for a robotics platform from the ground up
• You will be part of a small, highly technical team building in a fast feedback loop
• You will receive competitive salary, meaningful founding-stage equity, and strong benefits

Where

This role is full-time and on-site in Los Angeles.

We believe the fastest way to build great robotic systems is through tight feedback loops between hardware, software, and the bench. This role is in person because the work is physical, collaborative, and iterat