Lead Humanoid Robotics System Architect

Intel Corporation; Phoenix (AZ); Hybrid; USD 221,000 - 361,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock bonuses

Health benefits

Retirement plan

Vacation

Job summary

Intel seeks a senior leader to own the end-to-end humanoid robotics architecture, uniting vision-language-action models with physical hardware under tight power and latency constraints.

You will drive co-optimization of AI models with silicon, define system-level specifications, and lead multi-disciplinary architecture reviews to push platform capabilities forward.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in complex cyber-physical systems.
• 4–5 years specializing in robotics, autonomous systems, or high-performance edge AI platforms.
• BS in Engineering, Computer Science, Math, or related field is required.

Responsibilities

• Own the canonical hierarchical control stack for humanoid robotics, including VLM/VLA systems and real-time control loops.
• Define interconnect topologies, latency budgets and architecture requirements across ML research, controls, electrical, firmware and mechanical teams.
• Drive co-optimization of large VLA/world models with silicon, including quantization and context lengths.
• Author and maintain system-level specs for compute, power, thermal, sensors, and actuators.
• Lead architecture reviews and cross-functional decisions to align product goals with hardware constraints.

Skills

Cyber-physical systems

Robotics

Autonomous systems

Edge AI

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, CS, Math, or related field

Tools

NVIDIA Jetson/IGX

Custom AI silicon

Job description

Job Details:

Job Description:

The Role and Impact
This role serves as the authoritative systems architect owning the end-to-end hierarchical stack for next-generation humanoid robots. Acting as the critical interface between large-scale vision-language-action (VLA) models and physical platforms, this senior leader defines hierarchical multi-system architecture requirements and drives the co-optimization of advanced AI models with physical hardware under tight power, thermal, latency, and memory-bandwidth constraints.

Key Responsibilities

• Humanoid Robotic System Architecture Ownership: Own the canonical hierarchical control stack, including VLM/VLA systems, visuomotor policies, whole-body control, and distributed joint FOC loops. You will also establish rate boundaries, latency budgets, action-chunking strategies, and select interconnect topologies (e.g., EtherCAT).
• AI Model Optimization for Silicon: Drive co-optimization of large VLA/world models with compute silicon. Define quantization, sparsity/MoE, context lengths, and reference deployment envelopes to align model workloads with silicon capabilities.
• Co-Optimized Model + Hardware Architecture: Perform first-principles sizing of FLOPs, sustained TOPS, and memory-bandwidth floors. Select optimal compute platforms and design strategic splits of AI workloads between central compute nodes and remote sensor pods.
• Key Deliverables with Cross-Functional Impact
• Technical Leadership and Specifications: Author and maintain primary system-level specifications (compute, power, thermal, sensors, actuator networks, safety islands) and translate high-level product goals into actionable, quantitative requirements. Guide evolution of relevant technology roadmaps from current baselines to future system concepts that would influence product definition.
• Cross-Functional Authority: Lead multi-disciplinary architecture reviews, key decisions, and subsystem design trades across ML research, controls, electrical, firmware, and mechanical teams.
• Collaborative Experimentation and Mentorship: Formulate and guide expert-led viability experiments. Mentor senior engineers in system-level thinking, addressing critical hardware barriers like the memory and power walls, and represent the platform architecture with key external silicon and actuator partners.
• Architectural Expertise: Proven ownership of architectures bridging high-level AI models with real-time hardware control, alongside deep fluency in transformer inference constraints (quantization, action chunking, memory bandwidth walls) and real-time distributed systems (EtherCAT, zonal sensor pods, safety islands).
• Exceptional technical communication with a track record of writing rigorous, quantitative system specs and driving alignment across diverse engineering domains.

Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Core Experience: 10+ years in complex cyber-physical systems, with 4-5 years specializing in robotics, autonomous systems, or high-performance edge AI platforms.
• BS in Engineering, Computer Science, Math, or related field is required.

Preferred Assets: Direct experience with humanoid robots/mobile manipulators, hand-on exposure to VLA/foundation models (-series, Helix-class, GR00T, OpenVLA, or equivalent), expertise with robotics platforms (NVIDIA Jetson / IGX platforms, custom AI silicon, or both), and battery/thermal budgeting for highly constrained systems.

Join us in this exciting opportunity to lead the innovation and development of transformative platforms that set industry benchmarks and drive Intel's vision for next-generation computing experiences.

Job Type:

Experienced Hire

Shift:

Shift 1 (United States of America)

Primary Location:

US, Oregon, Hillsboro

Additional Locations:

US, Arizona, Phoenix, US, California, Folsom, US, California, Santa Clara

Posting Statement:

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by local law, regulation, or ordinance.

Position of Trust

This role is a Position of Trust. Should you accept this position, you must consent to and pass an extended Background Investigation, which includes (subject to country law), extended education, SEC sanctions, and additional criminal and civil checks. For internals, this investigation may or may not be completed prior to starting the position.

Benefits

We offer a total compensation package that ranks among the best in the industry. It consists of competitive pay, stock bonuses, and benefit programs which include health, retirement, and vacation. Find out more about the benefits of working at Intel.

Annual Salary Range for jobs which could be performed in the US: $220,920.00-361,480.00 USD

The range displayed on this job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target compensation for the position across all US locations. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific compensation range for your preferred location during the hiring process.

Work Model for this Role

This role will be eligible for our hybrid work model which allows employees to split their time between working on-site at their assigned Intel site and off-site. * Job posting details (such as work model, location or time type) are subject to change.

*

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Intel is committed to Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) compliance and ethical hiring practices. We do not charge any fees during our hiring process. Candidates should never be required to pay recruitment fees, medical examination fees, or any other charges as a condition of employment. If you are asked to pay any fees during our hiring process, please report this immediately to your recruiter.