Software Engineer: Robotics Controls

Generalist
Boston, US
On-site

Who this role is best for

Best suited to experienced roboticists with production-level AI expertise working in robotics controls and embodied AI.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with a background in robotics and AI deployment in physical systems
    — “build embodied foundation models, starting with a focus on dexterity”
  • Individuals with a history of shipping AI breakthroughs in robotics
    — “track record of shipping AI breakthroughs”
  • Experienced engineers who can work across firmware, hardware, and ML systems
    — “Designing, implementing, and testing the entire real-time control system from the low-level firmware to the input spec for each embodiment we have”

Things to consider

  • The role may require a long-term commitment due to the emphasis on foundational research and deployment
    — “We believe the industries and homes of the future will depend on humans and machines working together in new ways”

How to stand out

  • Emphasize your background in robotic middleware like ROS/ROS2/ZCM
    — “Experience with kinematics/simulation libraries”
  • Showcase projects where you integrated AI with physical robot systems for production use
    — “bringing robots into production environments with stringent reliability requirements”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · MediumAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Individual

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

What success looks like

  • designing, implementing, and testing the entire real-time control system
  • ownership over a wide variety of robot embodiments
Typical background
extensive experience in robotics controlsbackground in large-scale AI and robotics

Skills & requirements

Required

Rigid Body KinematicsRobotic ControlsHigh Performance, Production-ready Python And C++Robotic Middleware Platforms Such As Ros/ros2/zcmExtensive Experience In Robotics

Preferred

Experience With Kinematics/simulation LibrariesBackground In Large-scale AI And Robotics

Stack & domain

Robotics ControlsRigid Body KinematicsRobotic ControlsProduction-ready Python And C++Kinematics/simulation LibrariesRobotic Middleware PlatformsRos/ros2/zcmRoboticsAI

About the role

Original posting from Generalist via Ashby

ABOUT GENERALIST

At Generalist, we are on a mission to build general intelligence for the physical world and make it useful to everyone. We believe the industries and homes of the future will depend on humans and machines working together in new ways. Robots can help us build more and get more done.

We build embodied foundation models, starting with a focus on dexterity. This requires advancing the frontiers of data, models, and hardware, to enable robots to intelligently interact with the physical world.

The company embraces both large-scale AI and robotics as core to its DNA. Our team of researchers, roboticists, and company builders come from OpenAI, Boston Dynamics, Google DeepMind, and other frontier labs—with a track record of shipping AI breakthroughs. Before Generalist, we pioneered large embodied multimodal models and vision-language-action models (PaLM-E, https://research.google/blog/palm-e-an-embodied-multimodal-language-model/ RT-2 https://deepmind.google/blog/rt-2-new-model-translates-vision-and-language-into-action/, Gemini Robotics https://deepmind.google/models/gemini-robotics/), launched and scaled ChatGPT https://chatgpt.com/ and GPT-4 https://openai.com/index/gpt-4-research/ to hundreds of millions of users, engineered the foundations of autonomous driving, built next-generation robots (Atlas https://bostondynamics.com/atlas/, Spot https://bostondynamics.com/products/spot/, Stretch https://bostondynamics.com/products/stretch/) and pushed the limits of what they can do (from parkour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF4DML7FIWk to manipulation https://bostondynamics.com/blog/large-behavior-models-atlas-find-new-footing/, and testing robustness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFuA50H9uek).

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

ABOUT THE ROLE

You will own the software that controls our robots. You will collaborate with ML to turn output intentions into smooth, efficient, safe, and responsive actions on a variety of robot embodiments. You will collaborate with hardware and partners to ensure the system, dynamics, and components are behaving optimally.

You’ll be responsible for:

  • Designing, implementing, and testing the entire real-time control system from the low-level firmware to the input spec for each embodiment we have
  • Ownership over a wide variety of robot embodiments from stock industrial co-bot arms to custom hardware

You might thrive in this role if you:

  • Have extensive experience in rigid body kinematics, and robotic controls
  • Have experience bringing robots into production environments with stringent reliability requirements
  • Are experienced in high performance, production-ready Python and C++
  • Experience with kinematics/simulation libraries
  • Have experience in robotic middleware platforms such as ROS/ROS2/ZCM
  • Successful candidates have extensive experience (5+ years), often including a PhD

Source: Generalist careers (Ashby)

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