Applied Robotics & Perception Engineer

SWARM Biotactics; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

A pioneering biorobotics firm in San Diego is seeking a senior engineer to integrate sensing and mechatronic components for advanced robotics systems. Candidates should possess a Master's degree and over 5 years of experience in system integration, demonstrating multi-disciplinary collaboration within robotics, AI, and software domains. This role offers the opportunity to work in cutting-edge technology and contribute to the development of living robotic systems, redefining the intersection of biology and engineering.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in robotics system integration.
• Proven ability to collaborate across multiple disciplines.
• Experience with prototypes and hardware-near development.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end integration of sensing and mechatronic components.
• Evaluate and integrate sensors ensuring reliable data quality.
• Collaborate with teams across robotics, AI, and biology.

Skills

Robotics system integration

Mechatronics

Sensing

Embedded development

AI application

Education

Master's degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or Mechatronics

Job description

You will be based out of our San Diego, CA offices located in Torrey Pines.

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At SWARM Biotactics, we’re creating biorobots — living, intelligent systems based on insects. Each insect carries a custom-designed backpack that enables wireless control, sensing, and secure communication.

Biorobot swarms combine the agility of biology with AI, sensors, and swarm coordination — unlocking capabilities where conventional machines fail.

We are the only company in the world doing this — and we’re pushing the edge of what’s possible in every domain: from biology to embedded hardware to swarm intelligence.

Robust autonomy depends on tight integration across sensing, mechatronics, robotics software, and learning-based components.

We are looking for a senior, hands‑on engineer with substantial professional experience who can take ownership of prototyping end‑to‑end capabilities across these layers — from sensor selection to a perception PoC.

🚀 Join us at the frontier — and build the core autonomy capabilities for the first generation of living machines.

💡 What you’ll do

• Own end-to-end integration of sensing and mechatronic components in real-world systems
• Evaluate and integrate sensors and perception inputs, ensuring reliable data quality and robust pipelines
• Work across mechatronics, embedded‑adjacent bring‑up, and robotics software integration as needed
• Integrate and extend core robotics stacks (e.g., perception interfaces, estimation hooks, autonomy modules) for unconventional platforms
• Prototype learning‑based components where they create leverage, with a focus on robustness and measurable performance
• Design and run practical experiments to validate systems in realistic conditions
• Collaborate closely with robotics, AI, autonomy, software, and biology teams

🧠 What we’re looking for

• Excellent Master’s degree in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a closely related field
• 5+ years of full-time, professional experience building and integrating robotics systems (student roles, internships, or purely academic projects are not sufficient)
• Demonstrated ability to operate across disciplines: sensing, mechatronics, robotics software integration, and applied AI
• Comfortable with hardware‑near development and rapid prototyping
• Software engineering skills and a track record of ownership for complex components
• Ability to move between abstraction levels: system design, implementation, debugging, and validation
• Practical mindset: you work well with imperfect data and improve systems through iteration and measurement

➕ Nice to have

• Computer vision and/or perception experience
• Field testing, simulation-to-real workflows, or work on constrained/unconventional platforms
• We’re well‑funded and expanding fast in a space no one else is in.
• You’ll join a world‑class team working on the frontier of science and engineering.
• Your work will directly shape the foundation of biorobotic systems that redefine the interface between life and technology.

⚡ Join the Swarm

If you want to build foundational systems for technology that has never existed before, we’d love to hear from you.