Perception Engineer, Robot Safety

Tutorintelligence
Watertown, MA
On-site

Who this role is best for

A natural match if you have experience building perception systems for robots in shared human environments.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with experience deploying perception systems in real-world human-robot environments
    — “Our robots work in customer facilities with people nearby.”
  • Engineers who have owned safety-critical code with direct impact on system behavior
    — “You will own safety-critical code: The software path from a sensor reading to a stopped robot”
  • Individuals who thrive in cross-functional, collaborative environments and shape technical strategy
    — “You will help shape how Tutor keeps its robots safe and deployable.”

Things to consider

  • The role requires responsibility for failure modes and system behavior in production hardware
    — “including its tests, its failure modes, and its behavior when something upstream fails”
  • Candidates must be prepared to shift focus based on the team’s evolving needs
    — “it's common for people to start on one thing and shift to another based on where the team needs them most”

How to stand out

  • Emphasize your background in deploying perception systems on hardware in production
    — “Experience shipping perception or monitoring software on robots or vehicles”
  • Showcase your ability to test and fix weaknesses in perception systems using field data
    — “Test for weaknesses: Use replayed field data, constructed scenarios, and hardware faults”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Designing and building perception systems
  • Testing for weaknesses in safety systems
Typical background
Experience in AI roboticsBackground in safety-critical software

Skills & requirements

Required

Robot Perception SystemsSafety-critical Code OwnershipReal-time Software Engineering

Preferred

Robotics DeploymentRisk Assessment

Stack & domain

PythonC++LidarCamerasDetectionTrackingMonitoringSafety-critical CodeReal-time ConstraintsControls Knowledge

About the role

Original posting from Tutorintelligence via Lever

The Company

We believe general-purpose, generally-intelligent robots will be built in our lifetimes. Robots will work in our factories, move our goods, walk on our streets and eventually be in our homes. To build that future, research and deployment must work in lockstep: real-world operation must make the technology better and better technology must make deployment easier. We're looking for the thinkers, builders, and researchers who want to be part of that loop.

As an AI robotics company that deploys its inventions directly into the facilities that need them, on state-of-the-art hardware, every line of code written at Tutor has a direct impact on the global, physical economy.

Our Culture

We believe that something truly special can happen when talented, motivated people work together; at Tutor, every member of our team is empowered to have real impact in everything that they do. We're characterized by both technical excellence and next-level collaboration and respect.

About the Role

Our robots work in customer facilities with people nearby. The systems that keep those people safe are perception systems: sensors that detect a person, and software that decides how the robot responds. We're looking for an engineer to build those systems and own the code they run on.

This is an engineering role. You will design and build perception and monitoring systems, own safety-critical code end to end, and be responsible for the design and review of the systems that decide whether a robot may move. You will work across our product teams, joining whichever one is building something that affects safety, and you will test our systems for weaknesses before they show up in the field.

You will also help shape how Tutor keeps its robots safe and deployable. A robot that hurts someone is unacceptable, and a robot that cannot be deployed where the work is does not help anyone. The formal side of safety, risk assessments and the standards customers ask about, is part of this role. We will teach it. We are hiring for the engineering.

What You'll Do:

  • Build the perception systems that keep people safe: Detection, tracking, and monitoring from lidar and cameras, running on robots in production
  • Own safety-critical code: The software path from a sensor reading to a stopped robot, including its tests, its failure modes, and its behavior when something upstream fails
  • Design and review safety-relevant systems: Set the design for how a robot decides it is safe to move, and review changes across the codebase that affect that decision
  • Test for weaknesses: Use replayed field data, constructed scenarios, and hardware faults to find where the system fails, and fix what you find
  • Work across product teams: Join the team building something that affects safety and build it with them
  • Help set the strategy: Contribute to how Tutor keeps its robots safe and deployable as the fleet and the applications grow, including the evidence we give customers

What We're Looking For:

  • Experience shipping perception or monitoring software on robots or vehicles: Lidar or camera pipelines, detection, tracking, or sensor fusion, running on hardware in production
  • You have owned code where a bug could injure someone: You know how that changes design, testing, and review
  • Strong software engineering: Python and C++ or similar, real-time constraints, and code that other people can verify
  • Some controls knowledge: Stopping distances, latency budgets, and how a perception decision becomes a motion command
  • You fix what you find: When you find a weakness, you propose the fix and usually build it

Nice to Have:

  • Exposure to safety standards for robots or machinery, such as ISO 10218, ISO 13849, or ANSI/RIA R15.06
  • Experience with safety-rated sensors or safety validation of a detector
  • Experience in warehouses, manufacturing, or other environments where robots and people share space
  • Simulation and replay tooling for testing perception at scale

About Our Roles & Titles

At Tutor, we believe great engineers and researchers are defined by what they build and the impact they have — not where they sit in an org chart or what title they have. Therefore, everyone in our R&D org holds the title Member of Technical Staff (MoTS). Our job postings use standard titles so you can find us, but if you join Tutor, you'll be a MoTS — with a level that is determined through the interview process.

That also means we hire people, not slots. Work at Tutor evolves every quarter, and we set the expectation of flexibility from day one — it's common for people to start on one thing and shift to another based on where the team needs them most. A high technical bar across the board is what makes that flexibility possible: it's what allows people to contribute meaningfully whatever problem they take on.

Source: Tutorintelligence careers (Lever)

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