Robotics Engineering Intern: Hardware Integration & Data Collection

Robotics Engineering Intern: Hardware Integration & Data Collection

Location: Palo Alto, CA in-person / hands-on

Duration: Summer internship, approximately 12 weeks

Compensation: $35–$50/hour depending on experience

Hours: Flexible, ideally 20–40 hours/week

Equity: Potential equity with long-term alignment, subject to company plan terms

About Us

We are an early-stage, stealth-mode robotics company based in Palo Alto, working at the intersection of robotic manipulation, sensing, and physical AI.

We are building hands-on robotics systems that combine sensors, robotics software, and data collection infrastructure. This role is ideal for someone who wants to work close to real hardware, debug messy systems, and help build the engineering foundation for future robotics work.

Role Overview

We are looking for a scrappy, highly autonomous robotics engineering intern with strong Python, C++, Linux, and ROS experience. You will help bring our hardware stack online, integrate robotic manipulators with specialized sensing hardware, and build the software tools needed to collect high-quality experimental data from a physical robotics rig. This is not a pure research role. It is a hands-on engineering role for someone who likes making real systems work.

What You’ll Do

You will help with:

• Build, configure, and maintain a stable Linux environment for robotics development
• Install, configure, and debug ROS / ROS 2 packages and robotics dependencies
• Bring up robotic manipulator hardware and support basic control workflows
• Integrate sensors, cameras, USB devices, serial devices, and related hardware
• Develop Python and C++ tools for robot control, sensor interfaces, logging, and automation
• Build data collection pipelines for synchronized robot and sensor telemetry
• Support calibration, timing, synchronization, and validation workflows
• Run end-to-end data collection from a hands-on robotics test rig
• Debug hardware/software issues across Linux, ROS, sensors, robot components, and data systems
• Write reproducible setup scripts, documentation, and internal engineering tools
• Organize experiment procedures and help create a clean foundation for future robotics development

What We’re Looking For

You may be a strong fit if you have experience with several of the following:

• Strong Python programming; C++ experience
• ROS or ROS 2 experience
• Sensor integration or embedded systems
• Robot arms, mobile robots, drones, manipulators, or mechatronic systems
• Data collection for robotics, ML, or physical experiments
• Git/GitHub
• Debugging real hardware systems and Linux development
• Strong engineering instincts and comfort working independently
• Long-term interest in robotics, physical AI, or embodied intelligence

You do not need prior experience with our exact hardware stack. We care more about engineering ability, ownership, curiosity, and comfort working with real systems.

Nice to Have

• Experience with ROS 2
• Experience with robot arms or manipulation systems
• Experience with force sensors, pressure sensors, cameras, tactile sensors, or other physical sensing systems
• Experience with calibration or synchronized data logging
• Experience with Docker, Conda, or reproducible development environments
• Experience with MuJoCo, Isaac Sim, or similar robotics/simulation tools
• Experience writing clear technical documentation

Why This Role Is Interesting

You will get real ownership over early robotics infrastructure at a startup. Your work will directly shape the company’s first hardware and data collection systems. This is an early-stage, hands-on robotics prototype environment. The role requires meaningful onsite time in Palo Alto for hardware setup, sensor integration, debugging, and data collection. Candidates should be comfortable working in-person with physical hardware.

How to Apply

Please submit:

• Resume
• GitHub, portfolio, project links, or robotics videos if available
• Short note describing a robotics, Linux, sensor, embedded systems, or hardware project you have worked on